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)
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