Posted on 01/25/2009 9:42:48 AM PST by wagglebee
DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- An Iowa man who apparently took his own life was found dead with the book and DVD versions of the suicide guide "Final Exit" close to hand.
Des Moines police said Derek Mott, 56, also had a list on his desk of needed items for a suicide device described in the book, The Des Moines Register reported. The cause of death was described as asphyxiation.
Diane Mott discovered her husband's body at about 4 p.m. Thursday, police said. She told the newspaper he had been in great pain because of diabetes.
The book was written by Derek Humphry, who became an advocate of assisted suicide after his wife, suffering from terminal cancer, took her own life in 1975. Humphry is a founder of the Hemlock Society and a past president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.
"This book promises them relief. But in a way, it's giving people permission to kill themselves," said Dale Chell, a suicide prevention coordinator with the Iowa Department of Public Health. "The idea that someone is helping someone end their life seems to be against human nature. You should help someone end their agony, rather than end their life."
Exactly, pain from diabetes CAN be treated.
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His last words, “Yes Dear, I increased the life insurance as you requested, what’s that DVD you’re holding.”
I am sure his wife suffers greatly. Why make fun of a bad situation.
Suicides don’t get paid.
In my days as a paramedic there was nothing worse than to be called to an attempted suicide when the procedure went wrong and the person did not die but was left in worse condition. Often the advice in these books does not include information on what can go wrong. Imagine botching your suicide and then ending up on a respirator in a persistent vegetative state or with complete renal failure and on dialysis. Even a shotgun blast to the head may not be immediately fatal ..knew some paramedics who had such a case.
I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked,The problem with this clause is that almost all drugs are lethal given sufficient doses.
I see it didn't take you long to find this thread.
Are you here to explain to us how a sane person can somehow make a rational decision to kill themselves and how this is "heroic" because they will save money for their families and that this is on par with a serviceman throwing himself on a grenade to save his fellow servicemen?
I watched my father dye a little day by day. I respected his decision to end his life my his on will rather than suffer on with his painful, terminal condition. Obviously, you haven't been there so no amount of words could ever explain to you the agony involved. I am glad that you were not there to force my father through more weeks of pain.
First of all, you have my deepest sympathy for the loss of your father.
However, I think it extremely obtuse of you to conclude that I have not had to watch someone I loved die from a painful disease. Nearly all of us have gone through that and will again in the future. However, modern palliative care has advanced to the point that almost all pain can be managed.
Suicide IS NOT the solution to ANYTHING.
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It was for my father. Sure, modern science could keep him alive as a suffering vegetable but that was not the life he wanted. His life, his right. Not your call.
“Suicide IS NOT the solution to ANYTHING.”
* * * *
Can you expound on that, please?
(I’m not adverse to what you are saying- i just want to hear your argument supporting that.)
There is NOTHING to expound upon, it is morally wrong and medically unnecessary.
I knew a guy years back that tried suicide with a shotgun. At the last moment, he flinched and ended up blowing his jaw off along with some lower pieces of his skull...He survived that attempt. I don’t know what happened to him after that...
Are you saying that palliative medicine could not relieve the pain? If that is the case they were doing it wrong. And why are you referring to him as a "vegetable"? I thought you said he was in pain, people in vegetative states do not feel pain.
His life, his right. Not your call.
I never said it wasn't his right, I simply said it was wrong.
That is not true. On of the physicians I work with committed suicide. Life insurance paid. Only had to have policy for 2 years prior.
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