the answer is YES

leblanc IS responsible. ESPECIALLY when one is in a b&d or s&m relationship, one has to go a step beyond. ssc. safe sane and consensual. it's a MUST. if one is the top or dominant one, it is their responsibility their partner(s) are always SAFE. BOTH (or all) parties should be smart though. don't ever give up your rights OR your life for a quick thrill.

S&M Death Raises Legal Questions
By DENISE LAVOIE Associated Press Writer
LYNN, Mass (AP) -- Adrian Exley was wrapped tightly in heavy plastic, then bound with duct tape. A leather hood was put over his head with a thin plastic straw inserted so that he could breathe, and he was shut up in a closet.
That, apparently, was the way Exley liked it. But the way it ended - with Exley suffocating - was not what he had in mind when he traveled from Britain for a bondage session with a man he had met through a sadomasochism Web site.
Exley's body was discovered in the woods last year, two months after he was bound up in the bondage "playroom" Gary LeBlanc had built in the basement of his suburban Boston home. LeBlanc, a 48-year-old Gulf Oil sales executive, detailed his responsibility in the fatal bondage session in a five-page suicide note, just before he put a gun to his head and killed himself.
Now the question is: Since Exley consented to the sex play, can LeBlanc be held responsible for his death?............