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Foolproofing Suicide with Euthanasia Test Kits
TIME/Yahoo News ^ | 4/14/09 | William Lee Adams

Posted on 04/19/2009 10:00:27 AM PDT by wagglebee

When someone with a terminal illness decides to end their life by overdosing on barbiturates, they 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: cultureofdeath; deatheaters; euthanasia; lifehate; moralabsolutes; philipnitschke; prolife; suicide
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To: wagglebee
Capital punishment is just that, PUNISHMENT for a capital crime, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with euthanasia.

I see. You believe that it is ok to take someone else's life but not to take one's own life.

21 posted on 04/19/2009 11:17:12 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: ColdWater
My father was one of the most kindest life-loving people you could ever meet. For you to associate him with the 'culture of death' is despicable.

I have NEVER associated your father with ANYTHING. In fact, I have no clue what you are referring to.

22 posted on 04/19/2009 11:17:49 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee
Capital punishment is just that, PUNISHMENT for a capital crime,

Ah, you are part of the culture of death?

23 posted on 04/19/2009 11:17:51 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: ColdWater

I have been there with my Mother and Father and
Absolutely know how difficult it is

But under no circumstances would I call upon anyone
to have positively caused their death


24 posted on 04/19/2009 11:18:27 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: ColdWater
You believe that it is ok to take someone else's life but not to take one's own life.

Yes, society has believed this for thousands of years.

25 posted on 04/19/2009 11:18:39 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee
I have NEVER associated your father with ANYTHING. In fact, I have no clue what you are referring to.

Yes you have. My father advocated being able to obtain the appropriate drugs so to end his life peacefully. That makes him part of your culture of death. I guess you also put me in that same category.

26 posted on 04/19/2009 11:19:23 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: ColdWater

I understand that you grieve the loss of your father, but you also need to understand that nearly all of us will eventually face the painful death of a loved one.


27 posted on 04/19/2009 11:19:39 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee
Yes, society has believed this for thousands of years

Society believed that slavery was right for thousands of years. In fact it is in the bible.

28 posted on 04/19/2009 11:20:13 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: wagglebee
I understand that you grieve the loss of your father, but you also need to understand that nearly all of us will eventually face the painful death of a loved one.

Take you 'understanding' back. You do NOT understand so quit pretending that you do.

29 posted on 04/19/2009 11:21:18 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: ColdWater

If you want to oppose capital punishment, that is fine with me. I believe that it has probably lost its effectiveness as a deterrent.


30 posted on 04/19/2009 11:22:31 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: HangnJudge
But under no circumstances would I call upon anyone to have positively caused their death

That's not the issue. The issue is whether you want laws to remove options on how to end their lives. If (hypothetically speaking) they wanted to end their lives by taking drugs, would you deny them that option?

31 posted on 04/19/2009 11:23:42 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: ColdWater; Admin Moderator; Jim Robinson
Take you 'understanding' back. You do NOT understand so quit pretending that you do.

You ARE NOT the only person who has lost loved ones, this is part of life and it ALWAYS will be.

Your posts on this thread are way off base.

You have my deepest sympathies on the loss of your father. However, as I have NO CLUE who your father is, my opposition to euthanasia (which I have been opposing on FR for years) has NOTHING to do with you or your father.

32 posted on 04/19/2009 11:25:37 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee
If you want to oppose capital punishment, that is fine with me. I believe that it has probably lost its effectiveness as a deterrent.

I never said I opposed CP. I was pointing out that your position is not consistent in that you advocate killing others with drugs but want to keep laws to prevent a person from ending his own life in the manner he chooses.

33 posted on 04/19/2009 11:25:53 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: ColdWater

Capital punishment is a collective right of the state, it has NEVER been an individual right and it is a PUNISHMENT, not a treatment.


34 posted on 04/19/2009 11:30:41 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee
You have my deepest sympathies on the loss of your father. However, as I have NO CLUE who your father is, my opposition to euthanasia (which I have been opposing on FR for years) has NOTHING to do with you or your father.

I don't want your 'deepest sympathies' and it has everything to do with me and my father. YOU do not want me to be able to decide how to end my life and are an advocate. You: Use governement to control my life. Me: Remove government from my life.

35 posted on 04/19/2009 11:31:14 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: wagglebee
Capital punishment is a collective right of the state, it has NEVER been an individual right and it is a PUNISHMENT, not a treatment.

Hmm. You advocate killing others if it is done by the state. Seems like a culture of death exists somewhere is that.

36 posted on 04/19/2009 11:32:21 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: wagglebee
Yes, society has believed this for thousands of years.

I wonder if Jesus believed in CP?

37 posted on 04/19/2009 11:33:23 AM PDT by ColdWater
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To: ColdWater

I’m not sure if you have a problem with anger or are simply unable to comprehend. Capital punishment has NEVER been an individual right, regardless of what you and your anarchist ilk believe.


38 posted on 04/19/2009 11:34:28 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: ColdWater
Good Question

I have been profoundly trained to take responsibility for my actions
Every Prescription I write, I am responsible for it's intended use
Every Prescription a Pharmacist fills, He is responsible for it's intended use

It is Burned into my bones

If I write a prescription intended for use in a suicide
I am responsible for the suicide
no matter how it is labeled

The Horror of this is beyond me
Do not ask it
I will be broken in the task
An my Oaths unmade

It would be better that I was not born

Live in Peace

39 posted on 04/19/2009 11:34:53 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: ColdWater
I wonder if Jesus believed in CP?

And going a little further, he fell upon his face, praying, and saying: My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39)

40 posted on 04/19/2009 11:36:58 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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