The future is now.

St. Petersburg, Florida has passed a law making it "illegal to conduct a suicide for commercial or entertainment purposes, and to host, promote and sell tickets for such an event."

For all the fear of the possibility that the World Wide Web offers, this is the first I hear of a law designed to prevent such horrors (though I don't believe it addresses webcasts — I just think the internet is well suited to this kind of thing).

I am in fact amazed that humanity has exercised such restraint, without being prohibited by law.

It rings of a future described in Oryx and Crake.

Didn't Timothy Leary plan to webcast his death a few years ago?