Suicide/Asphyxiation Kit company raided by FBI

By Alex Schadenberg,
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

It has been confirmed by several media reports that the FBI raided the home/business of Sharlotte Hydorn was has been selling Suicide/Asphyxiation Exit Kits by mail order upon request. Hydoorn who operates the online mail order suicide kit business, GLADD, opened her door this morning to 12 FBI agents who had a Search Warrant.

Earlier this month, the Oregon State Senate unanimously voted to ban the sale of Suicide Kits in Oregon after the death of Oregon resident Nick Klonoski (29) who was living with chronic depression.

Senator Floyd Prozanski

State Senator Floyd Prozanski, who sponsored the bill stated:

"Any kid who suffers from depression after losing their first boyfriend or girlfriend and thinking the world is over has access to this right now,"

Link to an article on the bill to ban suicide kits.

Hydorn reportedly said that officials took about 20 suicide kits that were ready to mail out. Officials also showed her a list of kits she put in the mail Tuesday and that they were intercepted at the post office.

Hydorn has acknowledged that she does not screen buyers of her product, which she sells with instructions. She confirmed that Klonoski purchased one of her kits last June, though he gave no reason.

Dr. Eric Hollander

Dr. Eric Hollander, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, told ABC News that it is critical that individuals with psychiatric disorders resist acting on suicidal thoughts or impulses by helping them view their situation in a more realistic perspective.

Hollander stated:

"The problem is that with increased access to such a device to terminate life, some individuals might be enabled to act on a whim or impulse to kill themselves, whereas if this was not readily available, patients might obtain help for their underlying mental disorder, or view their situation from alternative or more realistic perspectives,"

Agents also seized Hydorn's computers and sewing machine, and her correspondence with individuals at the Final Exit Network.

Nick Klonoski

Once again, the mail order distribution of the Asphyxiation Bag proves that the suicide lobby is not concerned with whether or not a person is competent, terminally ill or actually suffering. They are only concerned with promoting a philosophical point of view, that death is an answer to difficult personal situations.

Vulnerable people need to be protected from those who would promote suicide as an answer to difficult personal situations. Hydorn suggests that dying by asphyxiation is simply a matter of choice. The family of Nick Klonoski understood that when someone is living with chronic depression that the sale of Exit Bags via the internet steered Nick to suicide, whereas he otherwise might have sought help.