Suicide promotion websites linked to euthanasia activist.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Euthanasia activist, Philip Nitschke, has been selling suicide information, devices and drugs, online, for years.

A recent article published by The Sun newspaper concerns school kids buying, online, lethal death row drugs to die by suicide. This is not only a phenomenon in the UK but it is a world-wide tragedy and it is not new. I have written about this problem on several occasions. Exit International may also have set-up a suicide promotion website in Canada.

Isobel Narayan

The Sun reported:

An inquest in 2013 heard how Isobel Narayan, 16, killed herself with the Death Row execution drug she had researched online on suicide forums and acquired by post. 

She was said to have suffered a "crisis of confidence" a month before her death and even typed up a list of reasons why she should kill herself. She later drank a lethal concoction of the drug - mixed with a mouthwash before going to bed. 

The A-level student, from Didsbury, Manchester, was found dead the next day by her devastated parents. 

Manchester Coroner Nigel Meadows said it was a "matter of public concern" she was able to obtain the drug.

It concerns me that the Sun article also promotes Nitschke. Nitschke is referring to websites that take money from people without sending the lethal drugs, the article misconstrues his comment as condemning websites, like his, who will sell suicide to anyone.

This is a difficult topic knowing that this article may lead to depressed people obtaining suicide drugs online. 

Nitschke makes money by selling suicide. He calls it freedom, when in fact he is ending the freedom to live for depressed people, including teens.