Thread by me.
‘Foolproofing Suicide with Euthanasia Test Kits.” The matter-of-fact headline should chill us, especially since it didn’t appear in some fringe publication or advocacy magazine.
It appeared in Time.
“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,” wrote the Time reporter. But if the drugs have expired, or if the dosage is incorrect, “the would-be suicide victim may actually survive,” although possibly with additional complications or in a coma.
Thank heavens (yes, that is sarcasm), an Australian euthanasia advocate, Dr. Philip Nitschke, has come up with a way to avoid that danger. He plans “to sell barbiturate-testing kits to confirm that deadly drug cocktails are, in fact, deadly.” The kits will debut in Britain in May for $50. . .
Thread by me.
Children are being born with severe genetic abnormalities because their parents are being refused funding to screen their embryos, those working in the field have claimed.
Fairer provision of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - in which embryos can be screened for a particular abnormality - could also mean fewer abortions when problems are picked up further down the line, experts from the Assisted Conception Unit at Guy's Hospital say.
The new, fully integrated IVF and PGD centre in London opens on Thursday and will serve couples from across the UK who want to ensure their baby does not carry a potentially life-threatening inherited condition - from cystic fibrosis to some forms of early onset cancer. . .
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