The Peaceful Pill Handbook After pressing the button for a third time, the Machine delivered a lethal dose of the barbiturate, Nembutal.
The Deliverance Machine now in the British Science Museum enabled these four people to die peacefully and with dignity under a brand new law.
My experience of legal, assisted suicide taught me that the drug Sodium Pentobarbital - commonly known as Nembutal - provides one of the most peaceful death imaginable. And it almost never fails. Oregon where assisted dying is lawful. In countries where there are no end of life laws, the means of achieving a peaceful death is next to impossible. The rationale of governments is that if people are kept in a state of complete ignorance, they should live longer and happier lives.
Not true! In my experience, once people have access to information that empowers and enables informed decisions - choices - to be made, they stop worrying. It is this empowerment that promotes a longer, happier life. Not ignorance. The Peaceful Pill eHandbook has been created to provide accurate, up-to-date information about practical end of life methods. This is not a theory book. This is a practical guidebook. The online medium is the perfect format for disseminating information in this fast-changing field.
Of course, the eHandbook also covers some grey areas of the law. However, it is the Constitutional protections offered by the First Amendment that allow these issues to be canvassed. Acknowledgements The Peaceful Pill eHandbook could not have been written without the support of many people.
First to thank are the many Exit members and PPeH subscribers who have contributed their expertise, ideas and travel stories. This is truly a joint effort. This book is not intended for young people or anyone suffering from psychiatric illness or depression.
As authors we acknowledge that there is a small risk that this book may be misused by people for whom this information is clearly not appropriate. When Derek first published Final Exit in he was criticised for endangering suicidal teens the world over.
There has been no rise in the suicide rate. Providing people with information does not incite or encourage people to die. And this is a critical point.
Rather, reliable, accurate information empowers people to make informed decisions about their own end-of-life circumstances. Good information should not only prevent grim, horrible deaths of gunshot and hanging the most common causes of suicide in the US, UK and Australia respectively but it should allay fears. It is a paradox, perhaps. By equipping Seniors and those who are seriously ill, with knowledge that empowers and returns control, these same people are more likely to stop worrying and get on with living.
Anecdotal evidence to this effect can be seen at each and every Exit meeting. Fears are addressed and participants feel back in control. Preface As authors, we ask that users of this eBook respect its integrity and intended audience. Seniors, the elderly and people who are seriously ill must have access to accurate information that enables informed decision-making.
Ignorance is dangerous. It is a basic human right to live and die with dignity. The Peaceful Pill eHandbook is our contribution to ensuring that your passing will be as proud and strong as your living.
Notepad A notepad function is located in top menu bar, allowing users can make notes as you go. The notes are stored as yellow page icons at various places in the text. Bookmarks A bookmark feature can also be found in the top menu bar. This allows pages to be marked for future reference. Index The traditional Index has been replaced by a search box function in the top menu bar. This does away with the need for page numbers.
When page numbers are quoted, they refer to the page counter at the center top of the digital display. Multimedia Because this is an online eBook, by its nature users can enjoy a full multi-media experience via hyperlinks and videos.
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The reasons that lead an elderly person or someone who is seriously ill to seek information about their end-of-life choices are many and varied. All are intensely personal. Rewriting the ways in which society can plan for and experience death and dying is the challenge of our time. The development of an end of life plan is one small step that all of us can take to protect those we love from the ravages of the law.
While most of us will never use our plan, we can all draw comfort in knowing that if things ever become too painful or undignified especially in the context of serious illness and age , we will have a plan in place that will allow us to maintain our dignity and our independence. Introduction The Wonders of Modern Medicine In any discussion of end of life issues the role of modern medicine is paramount.
While no one can be critical of the huge advances in medical science over recent decades - improving beyond measure the length and quality of our lives — there is also a flip side. In contrast to previous generations, we are now far more likely to die of slower, debilitating conditions that are associated with old age and illness. Yet we are also more likely to be kept alive through an increasingly sophisticated array of medical technologies. A longer life can be a wonderful thing, but should we be forced to live on, if we come to a point where we have simply had enough?
Our Ageing Population Acentury ago when life expectancy was approximately 25 years less than it is today, few people had the opportunity to reflect on how they might die. Then people were much more likely to die quickly with little warning.
For example, one hundred years ago infectious disease was common. People considered themselves lucky if they were still alive in their mid 50s. The widespread introduction of public health measures such as sewerage, water reticulation, good housing, and of course the introduction of modern antibiotics have all played a part in greatly reducing the toll of infectious disease. The Peaceful Pill eHandbook In modern times, those living in the developed west have a life expectancy of 75 to 80 years.
Now in industrialised countries, we will be more likely to experience diseases and disabilities that were rare in earlier times. This is why we see the issue of control in dying as being an increasingly common concern for many elderly people. Although few who attend these workshops have any intention of dying in the near future, most see a need to organise and plan for this inevitable event.
Just as many of us plan for other aspects associated with dying eg. And that means information. While for some people suicide is a tainted concept, for a growing number of older people it is an issue of great interest and discussion. In this context, taking your own life after careful consideration is a way out of a life that an individual might consider is not worth living.
Introduction People who come to Exit workshops are well aware of the importance of making that ultimate of decisions, the decision to die. They are all acutely aware of the need to get it right. In this Chapter, we examine the phenomenon of suicide in the context of the modern life course, and why access to the best in end of life information is so important.
Suicide has not always been seen as the act of a sick and depressed person. In ancient Greece, Athenian magistrates kept a supply of poison for anyone who wanted to die. You just needed official permission. For the Stoics of ancient times, suicide was considered an appropriate response, if the problems of pain, grave illness or physical abnormalities became too great. With the rise of Christianity, however, suicide came to be viewed as a sin a violation of the sixth commandment.
It was at this point that penalties were first established for those who attempted suicide. If the suicide was successful, it was the family of the offender who were punished with fines and social disgrace. The Peaceful Pill eHandbook With the emergence of modern medicine in the 19th Century, the meaning of suicide changed again and it is this understanding that prevails today.
Suicide is now generally thought of as the result of mental illness. If a person wants to end their life, then they must be sick a psychiatric illness, with depression the usual diagnosis. Are we seriously postulating that the suicide bombers of the Middle East are depressed?
Rather, the act of suicide is better seen as context dependent. In Oregon, for example, where physician-assisted suicide PAS is legal, one study found symptoms of depression to be present in 20 per cent of patients who request PAS. At Exit, we believe that feelings of sadness as opposed to clinical depression are anormal response to a diagnosis of a serious illness. To assume that suicide amongst the elderly or people who are seriously ill is, necessarily, the result of depression or other psychiatric illness, is to adopt a biomedical way of seeing the world.
And there can be no doubt. People who suffer from clinical depression are clearly at risk of suicide. Severe depressive states can rob a person of the ability to make rational decisions. These people need care and treatment until they are able to resume control. That said, illness of this severity is not common and needs to be distinguished from a larger group of people within society who may show occasional signs of depression, but who remain in full control of their decision-making abilities.
There is a significant difference between a person having moments of feeling down or having a transitory feeling that their life has lost purpose and the person who has severe clinical depression, where even the most basic daily decisions of life are problematic.
This is untrue, but to understand the claim, one needs to look at the background of the medical speciality that is palliative care. Rather, palliative medicine is about symptom control.
It is about improving the quality of life of those who are seriously ill and dying. To date, palliative care has been most successful in the treatment of pain. Indeed, it is often claimed - perhaps exaggeratedly - that palliative care can successfully address pain in 95 per cent of all cases. Nor does palliative care always guarantee a good death.
No where are the shortcomings of palliative care be more obvious than in the tragic death in of 31 year old writer, Angelique Flowers. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Peacefill Pill Handbook Item Preview. EMBED for wordpress. Want more?
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