We're in the spirit world......
Posted on 10/13/2008 1:33:37 PM PDT by markomalley
A medical ethics expert has said hallucinogenic drugs could be used to enhance the experience of dying.
The controversial suggestions include using ecstasy and 'magic mushrooms' to encourage closer bonding with family members and reduce anxiety in the final hours of life.
Robin Mackenzie, director of medical law and ethics at the University of Kent, will speak out at a workshop in London today to call for people to be given more choice over how they die.
Dr Mackenzie told the Independent newspaper: 'We have the technology to enhance the experience of dying.
'With neuroimaging [brain scans] we can measure the impact of different practices, such as meditation or drugs, which would allow us to orchestrate our dying, just as we choose the form of a funeral service.'
Research is being carried out into the effects of psilocybin - the drug found in magic mushrooms and ecstasy in terminal cancer patients.
A study at the University of Los Angeles is due to complete in December and research is also being carried out in Spain.
Today's workshop is being organised by Exit International, an Australian group which advocates voluntary euthanasia.
It will be hosted by founder Philip Nitscke, who recently sparked outrage with plans to hold the first DIY suicide workshop in Britain.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
...go ahead and let us kill you...we'll make sure that it is a profound experience...
And you thought that Purple Acid was bad.
Then where would we get the drugs for the bozos in the “media?”
Britain is terminally ill, and they must all be doing hallucinogens.
I thought we were supposed to give the Dr. K’s Secret Elixir
“The controversial suggestions include using ecstasy and ‘magic mushrooms’ to encourage closer bonding with family members and reduce anxiety in the final hours of life.”
Well everyone in the room would have to be wasted on that stuff for that to work really.....
A profoundly wretched experience, to be sure, as the patient -- induced into a state of detached dysphoria on his deathbed -- blurts out decontextualized utterings utterly inappropriate to the family and friends who stop by to pay him tribute.
I would pass a law that would force these junk science types to undergo exactly their recommendations.
I imagine dying sucks.
On heavy drugs, it would probably suck worse.
A light buzz might be alright though....
When the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars...uuug please. Pain management is one thing but hallucinogenic drugs?
A brilliant metaphor. Spot on.
We're in the spirit world......
I read the things his wife captured and I remember thinking it was very macabre and creepy.
*Special* brownies?
There are quite a few anxiety-reducing drugs. ...lol..and psiloybin - the psychedelic indole found in 'shrooms -. isn't one of them. Timothy Leary checked out while on an acid trip, and from what I read he didn't have the most peaceful sendoff.
I'd prefer a bottle of Old Grandad 114.
Just be sure you get the full 20 minutes.
FMCDH(BITS)
RATS already take these drugs.
FMCDH(BITS)
What?
Pain management is one thing but hallucinogenic drugs?
We in hospice use ativan to take the edge off and morphine to decrease pain and suffering with great success, but if a gigantic purple hairy clown with razor sharp teeth sprang out of the wall to eat you...I don’t see how this “enhances” a little ole 90 year old lady’s “dying experience”.
Liberals....GOD deliver us!
He really made that movie... it was his 101st and last. He was dying of cancer when he made it.
I’ve got no problem with this - I enjoy hallucinogenics. I wish they were legal for those of us who are very much alive.
I have seen alot of non-violent death (I am an ICU nurse) and I can assure that even the most peaceful death is not “easy”.
When it is my time to go, I will definitely want that “light buzz”. Serious hallucinogens??? No thanks.
Thanks FRiend. I’m here all week. :)
Especially if the person has never used drugs like that before...0_0
All the more reason to eat lots of mushrooms NOW!
I have my stash for when the time comes.
I just want to die under the open sky.
Some really good clinical LSD would be the best,
hard to find nowadays.
Either way, what a long strange trip it’s been...
Wonder how many failed drug warriors will rush in to stop they dying from doing drugs because it could adversely affect their health.
Believe this $hit ?
Exactly what I was thinking.
Disgusting. Reminds me of the death rooms in “Soylent Green” where they show beautiful clips of landscapes to make dying more “pleasurable.”
Did that in Soylent Green .
Hard to watch that scene with Edward G. Robinson when you realize he has terminal cancer.
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Wow..
Father God we pray for your protection and ask for your Angels and ministers of grace to defend us from this evil.
As one who recently had the experience of losing a parent to bone cancer, this is one very frightening concept.
...
I think they'd rather spend time with loved ones.
No, that’s what they want, to be with their families, only that they be higher than Keef Richards, circa 1968. That way they not only get to say g’bye to their relatives, they also get to say g’bye to Papa Smurf, Waldo the Unicorn, and all the various Star Wars creatures coming out of the wallpaper. “I’m comin’ to join you, Boba Fett ! This is the big one !”
Didn't know that. Thank you.
FMCDH(BITS)
Why not just starve to death, after all it’s ‘euphoric.’
I just want to know what someone in the health field says. Thanks.
Isn’t a morphine drip really a form of assisted death? I have watched two friends whose families had the morphine drip administered. It put them into what I would call an induced coma and slowed the heart rate down and then their death was more peaceful for the family. Isn’t this a type of assisted death? I know one family that is struggling with having administered this drug and feeling very responsible for their father’s death.
I just want to know what someone in the health field says. Thanks.
Not at all.
We give a very highly concentrated form and almost never by drip. We give it orally about 99% of the time and it absorbs directly in the mouth if they can’t swallow. Often we don’t have to give it at all, but if someone’s in alot of pain say dying of cancer, it’s the humane thing to do.
We NEVER EVER giv e someone morphine “for the family”.
I’ve worked for 6 hospices in the Atlanta area and not one has overdosed anyone, or sped things up. Hospice neither slows down or speeds up death.
It sounds like THIS hospice did a very poor job of educating these families you speak of though. I would invite them to go to a support group, alot of hospices host grief support groups, ask them to call or look in the paper, and maybe from a different hospice if that’s possible for them.
Hope this helps!
My father was in a coma, his ventilator was removed and the dr. upped his morphine drip, 24 hours later he was gone.
Thank you so very much for your reply. That helped. It was not a hospice situation. Both were in the hospital and failing quickly. The doctor’s asked the families if they wanted to do the morphine drip and they both agreed. It did make the passing go much easier. Your reply helped. Thanks!
Sure, sometimes people don’t have time to get on hospice but if they do, they should. But it’s important for even young people to get a living will.
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