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Foolproofing Suicide with Euthanasia Test Kits
William Lee Adams
TIME
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
When someone with a terminal illness decides to end his or her life by overdosing on barbiturates, they may hope the drugs will lull them into a peaceful and permanent sleep. But if the drugs have passed their expiration date or lack a sufficiently lethal concentration, the would-be suicide victim may actually survive — risking an array of complications including coma, reduced physical functioning and the opprobrium of disapproving friends and family. Now, in an effort to provide certainty to those contemplating suicide, one of the world’s leading euthanasia advocates plans to sell barbiturate-testing kits to confirm that deadly drug cocktails are, in fact, deadly.
“People who are seriously ill don’t want to experiment,” says Dr. Philip Nitschke, the physician known as Dr. Death for his efforts to legalize euthanasia in his native Australia. “They want to know they have the right concentration of drugs so that if they take them in the suggested way, it will provide them with a peaceful death.”
The kits, which will debut in Britain in May and retail for $50, include a syringe that allows users to extract half a milliliter of barbiturate solution without breaking the sanitary seal. “Clearly, sterility doesn’t matter given that death is the desired outcome,” Nitschke says. But the solution deteriorates slower in a sterile environment, allowing those with painful conditions to “lock it away in the back of the cupboard in case things gets too bad.” The extracted sample is then mixed with chemicals from the kit; a color change indicates a lethal solution. (See pictures of suicide in the U.S. Army recruiters’ ranks.)
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Nitschke began devising the kits two years ago in response to growing demand from members of Exit International, the organization he runs that distributes information on end-of-life methods. Increasingly, the group’s 3,500 members are obtaining sodium pentobarbital, a clear solution used to anesthetize cats, dogs and horses, from online sources based in Mexico and Southeast Asia. “For whatever reason, the suppliers have been taking off the label when they ship it,” Nitschke says. “People want reassurance they’ve not just bought a bottle of water.”
That hardly justifies a suicide test kit, say anti-euthanasia groups, who are up in arms about Nitschke’s move. “Nitschke is an extremist and a self-publicist,” says Peter Saunders, director of Care Not Killing, an anti-euthanasia group in London. “He will prey upon vulnerable people with these kits, and as a result they won’t get the medical treatment and proper palliative care that they really need.”
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April 21st, 2009 at 12:22 pm
“Proper palliative care”, eh…
If a human being is in pain, and there’s no chance they’ll get any better, why shouldn’t they end things on their own terms?
April 21st, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Some humans are stuck in a bed loaded with spinal & brain cancer for months on morphine unable to sit up because of the pain. The 2-3 hours per day they are awake they can’t even remember thier own children. I think that in this situation euthanasia should be an option for a peaceful end to the suffering.
I’m sure the insurance sucking medical field plays a big part in keeping this illegal.
April 21st, 2009 at 8:37 pm
i dnt agree with this whole idea of suicide because life gets to hard, i understand that it must be horrible for some people with certain conditions and yes i think some people should be able to die gracefully by withdrawing meds etc, i feel that if euthanesia were to become legal however then you would see many people see it as a viable option for more and more of lifes troubles, so in my opinion there is no easy answer to this question, as some times it may be morrally right to end ur life early (terrible burns no chance of survival etc) but in other cases where people are old and tired of life, i think that they do nt have a right to just choose were and when they die.
Jeremy Reply:
April 22nd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
legal or not, how are you really gonna legislate suicide, gimme a break
Karmakaze Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Why not? Why do YOU have the moral right to chose when and where and how they die? How come YOU get to choose for them?
I don’t like suicide either, but I don’t believe I have any right to tell someone they can’t do it if that is what they want to do. I guess I just respect peoples right to live or die their own way.
April 22nd, 2009 at 9:49 am
As a child I grew up bicycling along the river Lea which runs through London joining the river Thames in East London central. Always during the summer the smell of European Hemlock ( an unpleasent mouse nest sort of smell ) was prevalent the smell is due to the Coniine .
{coneen} pronounced. this poison was used by the Greeks as the instrument of capital
punishment see: Socraties.
In 1991 during the first Gulf war the Lea vally was replanted with American Hemolck
American Hemlock is not poisonus ie no Coniine but has a sent see : Taggets.
The water soluable Oxime of Coniine see : 2 P A M
is vital to the construction of a sheild. see : combo pen “opperation Grannby 1991″
The river paths now smell nice.
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Can we send these, in nice gift wrapping to members of Congress, the Senate, the Federal reserve, the Banks, and such… and say… a gift, from the American people ? Just a question… seems like a much better end than hanging.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Isn’t it funny, that weed can’t be legalized, yet suicide will be embraced! It’s a truly amazing world…
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Oh, one more thing…
My Dad always used to say, “These people with problems in their lives, why would they want to go and make their lives even worse? It doesn’t make any sense…”
Karmakaze Reply:
April 25th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
How does dying mike your life worse?
Sounds like your dad was an idiot.
May 2nd, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Wow, now this is what I like! Keep up the good work!