History Main / InvoluntarySuicideMechanism

** This usually isn't a suicide mechanism though. It is standard policy for profesionals to first test for a fastpenta enduced allergy before using the drug. Thus it's unlikely that anyone important enough to have an induced allergy will be subjected to fastpenta without testing for it (don't want to accidentally kill a captive before you get information out of him). In practice this usually means the important operatives get to enjoy the old fashioned interrogation methods.

** After the second time this happens Foyle gets ''annoyed''. Using the illegal BulletTime reflexes he paid for he knocks out his third target, [[NightmareFuel cuts out his heart and connects his circulatory system to an artificial blood pump]] within twenty seconds. ''Then'' he starts questioning him.

* There's a fairly complicated version of this in the XWingSeries novels by Stackpole. There's a drug called [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Skirtopanol skirtopanol]] that is used in interrogating prisoners, since it lowers their defenses and makes them more sensitive to pain. But if someone's been taking [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lotiramine lotiramine]], the chemicals react, sometimes fatally. An Imperial gave lotiramine to someone he'd used, telling the man that it would protect him from a plague that was going around. When the local CompleteMonster caught up with the Imperial, he told him that the man had gone into convulsions and died after being dosed with skirtopanol. The Imperial was surprised. He'd have had to have been taking four times the recommended dosage to go into convulsions.

An espionage/science fiction trope, this is where agents/those who know important information are wired so that if they are interrogated, they will die instead of divulging any information. Generally a sign of having a BadBoss who doesn't care about the lives of his subordinates, although at least in theory, it could be a somewhat humane way of allowing the captured agent to escape some amount of torture. Compare with CyanidePill which is more "voluntary" and the related concept of the ExplosiveLeash.

* In ''Literature/ThursdayNext TheEyreAffair]]'', when an associate of Acheron Hades started to tell the authorities what he knew, he spontaneously combusted.

* In the ''MilesVorkosigan'' series, Imperial Security agents are doctored so that they will have a fatal allergic reaction when given the universe's TruthSerum, which ironically was intended to prevent torture, but obviously, most people who know anything couldn't be given it. Because of the protagonist's odd medical history, he wasn't doctored in this way, but instead has an odd allergic reaction to fastpenta (becoming a TalkativeLoon), and is able to exploit this to beat one interrogation he's subjected to in the series. His clone brother Mark, who has an undamaged metabolism, has been doctored to have an allergy to fastpenta and would die if he received it.
** This usually isn't a suicide mechanism though. It is standard policy for profesionals to first test for a fastpenta enduced allergy before using the drug. Thus it's unlikely that anyone important enough to have an enduced allergy will be subjected to fastpenta without testing for it (don't want to accidentally kill a captive before you get information out of him). In practice this usually means the important operatives get to enjoy the old fashioned interrogation methods.

* In ''TheEyreAffair'', when an associate of Acheron Hades started to tell the authorities what he knew, he spontaneously combusted.

* In the TortallUniverse, a death spell can be used for this purpose. It doesn't save the victim from torture/TruthSerum interrogation, but it kills him if he tries to give up accurate information. Aly comments to a captured spy that "if someone put three death spells on me, I'd wonder whether they trusted me at all".

* OlegDivov's ''Brothers in Reason'' starts with an unknown cabal kidnapping random (or so we think at first) people in Britain and trying to use a mind-reading machine on them, only for them to have a fatal heart attack just when the machine starts receiving data. They try a different approach with the wife of an influential politician, who is caught in bed with one of the protagonists. Instead of using the machine, the cabal members show her the photos of her affair and then start asking questions. Just as they're getting to the interesting parts, she also croaks. It turns out they were all members of a sister secret organization that the other protagonist works for, all members of which have mentally-implanted "kill switches" that are activated if unauthorized access is detected. It fails, however, when an extremely-powerful psychic uses his abilities to disable the kill switch in one of the operatives, allowing the mind-reader to work.

* ''{{Declare}}''. Elana's handler uses one to try and kill her when she announces she's defecting to the French. Fortunately she was praying when the hypnotic "kill command" was implanted, and this somehow disrupted it.

* Literature/''{{Declare}}''.

* In ''BattlefieldEarth'', the [[AuthorTract sinister cabal of psychiatrists]] that rules the Psychlo race has implanted mind-control devices in their subjects' skulls, both to modify behavior and protect the all-important secret of teleportation. If an alien asks a Psychlo about teleportation or even mathematics, males are conditioned to go into a suicidal killing spree, while females go catatonic.

* Happens to one of the Grey Men in ''[[TheStainlessSteelRat The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge]]''.

* In ''TheStarsMyDestination'', the crew of the Vorga was implanted with a mechanism that would stop their hearts if they started to give information revealing the circumstances explaining why they passed by the protagonist, Gully Foyle. When Foyle starts torturing the first of the crew members, he dies the moment he starts divulging information.

* In the {{Tortall}} series, many of the antagonists seem to put this sort of spell on their {{Mooks}}.

* Actors in TheActsOfCaine are conditioned so that they cannot (on Overworld) admit they are Actors, speak Earth languages, etc. Approaching the topic can give them fits. They will die before they can say it.

* Weyoun 6 from DeepSpaceNine has one of these that he activates after his HeelFaceTurn to save one of the series' heroes.

* In the ''MilesVorkosigan'' series, Imperial Security agents are doctored so that they will have a fatal allergic reaction when given the universe's TruthSerum, which ironically was intended to prevent torture, but obviously, most people who know anything couldn't be given it. Because of protagonist's odd medical history, he wasn't doctored in this way, but instead has an odd allergic reaction to fastpenta (becoming a TalkativeLoon), and is able to exploit this to beat one interrogation he's subjected to in the series. His clone brother Mark, who has an undamaged metabolism, has been doctored to have an allergy to fastpenta and would die if he received it.

* ''{{Watchmen}}'' has a lowtech version of this, where Veidt pretends to be stopping a would-be assassin [[spoiler: he hired himself]] from taking a CyanidePill, [[spoiler: but actually had the pill himself, and shoves it down the other's throat.]]

* In the TortallUniverse, a death spell can be used for this purpose. It doesn't save the victim from torture/TruthSerum interrogation, but it kills him if he tries to give up accurate information. Aly comments to a captured spy that "if someone put 3 death spells on me, I'd wonder wether they trusted me at all".

* ''{{Watchmen}}'' has a lowtech version of this, where Veidt pretends to be stopping a would-be assassin [[spoiler: he hired himself]] from taking a CyanidePill, but actually had the pill himself, and shoves it down the other's throat.

* In 'Midnight Never Come'' Invidiana has put a spell on Tiresias that will kill him if he tells what he knows about her. He decides it's worth the price.

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<<|DeathTropes|>>

An espionage/science fiction trope, this is where agents/those who know important information are wired so that if they are interrogated, they will die instead of divulging any information. Generally a sign of having a BadBoss who doesn't care about this lives of his subordinates, although at least in theory, it could be a somewhat humane way of allowing the captured agent to escape some amount of torture. Compare with CyanidePill which is more "voluntary" and the related concept of the ExplosiveLeash.

* In ''TheStarsMyDestination'', the crew of the Vorga was implanted with a mechanism that would cause death if they started to give information revealing the circumstances explaining why they passed by the protagonist, Gully Foyle. When Foyle starts torturing the first of the crew members, he dies the moment he starts divulging information.