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Methods of self-deliverance from a terminal illness

Apr 28th, 2006 by

The New Technology in Self-Deliverance Group — better known as NuTech — will hold a workshop as an adjunct event to the 16th biennial conference of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies in Toronto, Canada, on September 8-10, 2006

It was the pioneer work of the NuTech group which developed the inert gas tank and bag method of legal self-deliverance from a terminal or hopeless illness — a hastened death technique now widely used on many continents.

NuTech’s workshop will be in the Sheraton Centre, downtown Toronto, starting at 8 a.m on Sunday, September 10. All official delegates to the world conference are invited; others by invitation only.

Only persons closely involved and knowledgeable about hastened deaths are welcome — the broader issues law, ethics and philosophy are dealt with in the major sessions of the 3-day conference.

Facilitators at the NuTech workshop so far will include Dr. Philip Nitschke, from Australia, Dr. Aycke Smook, (Netherlands), Derek Humphry (Oregon), while Rod Newman from Montana will demonstrate and sell inert gas balloon kits. Other right-to-die experts are being arranged.

Also on the Nutech workshop agenda will be discussions of the feasibility of visiting Mexico to legally purchase medications suitable for self-deliverance from a terminal illness, the value of flow meters for inert gas tanks, and the latest availability and use of well-known lethal medications for voluntary euthanasia.

Previous meetings of NuTech, starting in l998 involving international experts, were held in Berkeley, California, Seattle, Washington, Vancouver, BC, Boston, Massachusetts, and San Diego, California.

NuTech contact person: derekhumphry@starband.net

Background on NuTech at: http://www.finalexit.org/nutech.html

Main Toronto conference details at: www.dyingwithdignity.ca/world_conference-2006.html

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World euthanasia conference in Toronto, September

Apr 24th, 2006 by

Details of the joint conference of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies and Dying with Dignity, of Canada, can be seen at this site

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Assisted suicide law: step by step in Britain

Apr 21st, 2006 by

The second reading in the House of Lords of a private members Bill on assisted suicide is set to take place. The Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill proposes to make it legal for doctors to prescribe drugs to a terminally ill person in order for them to take their own life.

The Bill was put forward for consideration by the former human rights lawyer, Lord Joffe.

The Bill is scheduled to be up for a public reading on 12 May. At that time the Bill will pass through without a vote taking place, and will be put forward before the committee stage, where it will be considered by the House of Lords.

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Popularity of right-to-die bookstore

Apr 19th, 2006 by

In the 15 months it has been open, the ERGO internet bookstore has received more than three hundred thousand visitors (301,501), and 1,410 customers from around the world have purchased books or videos about choices in dying.

Posted in Books, Publications/InternetMedia, RTD News, RTD Organizations | 1 Comment »

No plans to expand Swiss assisted suicide

Apr 18th, 2006 by

Ludwig A. Minelli, Secretary General of DIGNITAS in Switzerland, said that a report in the London Sunday Times of 16 April 2006 telling that DIGNITAS has plans “to open a chain of high street-style centres” to end the lives of people with illnesses or mental conditions such as chronic depression “is a hoax”.

There are no such plans, and he had never met the reporter, said Mr. Minelli

Literature on assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia available.

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Right-to-die not popular in Russia

Apr 17th, 2006 by

Moscow, April 15, Interfax –

Nearly a quarter of Russians – 23% – believe that there should be no restrictions on euthanasia as a form of assistance to terminally ill patients wanting to voluntarily end their life and that the practice should become common, while another 36% would support allowing euthanasia with serious restrictions, a poll has shown.

At the same time, 28% of Russians are strongly opposed to euthanasia and believe the practice should be criminally prosecuted, according to a poll of 1,600 respondents conducted by the All-Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) at 153 communities in 46 regions of Russia on April 1-2.

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Right to die: censorship move in Germany

Apr 14th, 2006 by

FIRST IN AUSTRALIA, NOW PERHAPS GERMANY…

On March 27, three of the German Federal States introduced in the Council of the Federal States (Bundesrat) a proposal for a new German law which, if it became law, would make it difficult to provide information on assisted suicide or self-deliverance.

The proposal — in translation — is entitled ‘Draft of a law to prohibit the dissemination on a business basis of information offering options of self-deliverance.’

The purpose behind this legislative move appears to be to force the Swiss lawyer, Ludwig A Minnelli, to close down his recently opened DIGNITATE office in Hanover. German members are entitled to receive the same assistance as DIGNITAS, in Switzerland, provides to its members — physician-assisted suicide for the terminally and hopelessly ill adult.

If passed, the law would probably affect all right-to-die organization activities in Germany.

It promises to be a controversial debate.

On 6 January 2006, the Australian federal government introduced the Suicide Related Materials Offences Act, which makes it a crime in Australia to use the telephone, email, fax and Internet to discuss the practicalities of end of life issues.

As a consequence, Exit International has moved its headquarters to New Zealand.

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Drugs used in judicial executions and assisted suicide

Apr 12th, 2006 by

There is considerable controversy in the US about the most humane way to execute persons sentenced to death. Some experience in this can be gained from euthanasia practices. The NY Times has weighed in on this April 12, part of which is quoted below, with my response.

The three chemicals used in lethal injections in about 35 states have long attracted attention for what critics say is their needless and dangerous complexity.

The first chemical in the series is sodium thiopental, a short-acting barbiturate. Properly administered, all sides agree, it is sufficient to render an inmate unconscious for many hours, if not to kill him. The second chemical is pancuronium bromide, a relative of curare. If administered by itself, it paralyzes the body but leaves the subject conscious, suffocating but unable to cry out. The third, potassium chloride, stops the heart and causes excruciating pain as it travels through the veins.

Problems arise, lawyers and experts for the inmates say, when poorly trained personnel make mistakes in preparing the chemicals, inserting the catheters and injecting the chemicals into intravenous lines. If the first chemical is ineffective, the other two are torturous.

In veterinary euthanasia and in assisted suicides in Oregon, a single lethal dose of a long-acting barbiturate is typically used. But corrections
officials and their medical experts say using that method in executions would take too long and would subject witnesses to discomfort.

FOOTNOTE by Derek Humphry: For the legal, medically-assisted suicide of a terminally ill, competent, adult Oregon resident who requests hastened death, a liquid containing nine grams of Nembutal or Seconal is offered to the patient. It normally induces almost immediate coma and death in less than an hour.

Only one case of failure out of some 230 has been reported, and it appears that in that case the drug was diluted by another substance which the patient took to reduce the bitter taste. In Oregon it is ONLY oral administration and subject to rules; injections of a lethal substance are illegal.

04/2006 ergo@efn.org

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Derek Humphry: Cartoon in NY Review of Books

Apr 11th, 2006 by

There is a David Levine cartoon from a back issue of the at New York Review of Books

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Right to choose to die: the quality of inert gas for auto-euthanasia

Apr 11th, 2006 by

I have a question about the helium method of euthanasia. I was under the impression that the helium that can be purchased from a local retail establishment is not 100% helium but that it is mixed with air in some major proportion.

Do you know if this is true or even likely? If it is true, can you suggest a supplier of 100% helium?

Another question: Can pure helium be stored for relatively long periods of time or does it escape relatively quickly from it’s storage tank?

Thanks for your help. –Michael Young, Wichita, Kansas

REPLY BY DEREK HUMPHRY: There has been ‘scare talk’ about the helium in party balloon kits being diluted. But it has never happened. Beware of the irresponsible, ill-informed talk that you see on some web sites.

(1) Nobody has ever reported to me an actual case of dilution; (2) the law requires that the manufacturer states clearly on the canister what it contains — that has not happened, and if it did you would see the warning; (3) party balloon kits are a multi-million dollar worldwide business — to dilute the tanks just for the few of us who might buy for self-deliverance would not make commercial sense; (4) if the tanks were diluted with air, the helium would not work for self-deliverance, but they would also not work for their intended purposes.

(I know for a fact that the chief manufacturer is fully aware that occasionally its product is used for self-deliverance. Just don’t mention their name.)

The only party balloon kit to avoid is one coming out of China and has purple tanks. They are far too small. Very distinct PURPLE tanks.

As to storage of helium tanks: provided they are not tampered with, and the handle kept tightly screwed down by hand, they should last indefinitely. 04/2006

Literature relevant to this subject at the ERGO store.

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