Child Suicide: The Case Of Samantha Kubersky

Children represent the most vulnerable part of society. Their honesty and naivety make them easy targets for any kind of mockery or deception. In turn, it is often they themselves who act as the executioner of other children without really understanding the pain they cause. For this reason, talking about child suicide continues to be a complicated subject: it has many nuances and the danger of taking a slip is great.  

Death is a difficult event for children to understand. Faced with the death of a loved one, many of them keep asking for her, others still include her in their present and many others are satisfied with the classic “she’s gone”. The problem is that a single child can receive various explanations, very different from each other and not always correct.

That said, the idea that little ones might think about suicide is beyond our understanding. In the adult stage it is common that in the presence of certain circumstances one can think of suicide, even without committing it. On the other hand, a mature person is aware that there is no return from death, but a child may not be aware of this. Child suicide continues to be a topic with many unanswered questions.

Child suicide: the case of Samantha Kubersky

On December 2, 2009,  Samantha Kubersky’s mother found the lifeless body of her 6-year-old daughter.  She had put a belt around her neck and then launched herself from the top of a cradle. Despite attempts at resuscitation by family members and health personnel, there was nothing to be done.

A few hours earlier the little girl had argued with her mother. Both the mother and one of the sisters were in different rooms when the tragedy occurred. According to the police, there were no indications that the family was involved in the incident.

It seemed incredible that such a small child had had the determination to commit such an act. There was much speculation that this child suicide might have been an accident, which, however, did not agree with the evidence found by the police. The questions were numerous: was it a bad game or was it his way of escaping the anger caused by the discussion? Was he trying to hurt his mother with his behavior or did his feeling of guilt prevail?