Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Rose states that assisted suicide deaths will often take many hours. Rose writes about the death of Colorado resident Kurt Huschle who died by assisted suicide in July 2017. Rose writes:
On the morning of July 16, a nurse arrived at their home and checked that Kurt stood by his decision. By noon, he was ready to go. Following the directions given, Susan mixed the contents of two small bottles into a bigger one and gave it to Kurt.
She had expected him to drink the drug cocktail, share a last hug, then pass away peacefully.
Instead, as Susan later told the Denver Post newspaper: ‘With every sip he’s choking and coughing, choking and coughing.’
After 20 minutes, she said, he began to gasp unevenly. He seemed to have lost consciousness. But more than four hours after he took the drugs, he was still alive.
Scared and upset, Susan called a doctor and asked for help. It was then the thought struck her that, like many dying patients, Kurt might still be partly conscious and able to hear her.
At 8.15pm, more than eight hours after Kurt took the drugs, he sat up in bed, retched and finally stopped breathing.
Susan said she still believed it was right to help him die. But it had not been a peaceful farewell and they had not been able to say goodbye as she had wanted.
The Oregon 2019 assisted suicide report states that the time of death ranged from 1 minute to 47 hours but the report didn't indicate how many people died more than 90 minutes after taking the lethal drugs.
Assisted suicide drug experimentation.
Assisted suicide activists have been experimenting for several years with lethal assisted suicide drug cocktail experiments to find a cheaper way to cause death.
An article by Lisa Krieger published by the Medical Xpress on September 8, 2020 uncovers information about the lethal drug experiments:
A little-known secret, not publicized by advocates of aid-in-dying, was that while most deaths were speedy, others were very slow. Some patients lingered for six or nine hours; a few, more than three days. No one knew why, or what needed to change.
"The public thinks that you take a pill and you're done," said Dr. Gary Pasternak, chief medical officer of Mission Hospice in San Mateo. "But it's more complicated than that."
An article published in USA Today in February 2017 examined the experiments being done on people to find a cheaper lethal drug cocktail for assisted suicide. The article states that assisted suicide researchers are promoting new generations of lethal drug cocktails. The results of the first two lethal drug cocktails were:
The (first) turned out to be too harsh, burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain. The second drug mix, used 67 times, has led to deaths that stretched out hours in some patients — and up to 31 hours in one case.
The 2020 Oregon report emphasizes the use of the fourth generation of lethal drug cocktails show that the length of time to die has reduced but the problems with the use of these lethal drug cocktails continue.
Link to video by Dr William Toffler of Oregon on this topic (Link).
3 comments:
It occurs to me that people who "need" assisted suicide aren't really ready to go. I watched a loved one, and she simply left when she was ready. As soon as she knew I got the message she was trying to say, "I love you," she stopped breathing. It sort of like the abortion question. If a mother really, REALLY doesn't want to bear the child, she will have a miscarriage, and you won't be able to stop it. I know this is not a commonly held thought, but please think about it. If someone is truly ready to die, he will. No drugs needed.
Alex,
I so appreciate your continued perseverance and faithfulness in this area of work, as so much of it is so heart-breaking to research. It must be quite draining at times to come up against this relentless wickedness and deceit.
Again, thank you for both watching out and speaking out.
All the best, Karrie
A study by the Duke University School of Medicine from a few years ago looked at all of the drugs and drug cocktails used for capital punishment, some of which are used for Assisted Death. The results indicated that all had significant failure rates, ranging from 24% up to about 74% depending. This brings up a key issue. If we are banning capital punishment on the basis of it being inhumane with unnecessary suffering from drug failure, why then how can society relegate what is inhumane for criminals convicted of heinous crimes to be humane for the dying and suffering? Those who think giving a morphine titration kills, do not understand the titration process and how it actually allows to natural course of the terminal condition, but does not constitute intentional killing with the drug itself.
Assisted death is extremely faulted philosophically and religiously, whether it is on one hand an attempt to end suffering, which it does not, or a human sacrifice to get rid society of those unfit to live or who consume an inordinate amount of health resources, to which few will admit, or whatever rationale people will use to justify the urge to end life, be it their own or that of others. No life should be ended prematurely by any artificial means.
Those who promote assisted death have most likely never seen the results or the process. Perhaps if they had to clean up the mess afterward, counsel the medical personnel on the PTSD they suffer for having witnessed so much death, especially when they are part of the initiating process of death, they might change their tune. Having dealt firsthand with those who have had to kill others in warfare when it is morally justified, knowing the military commanders with whom I have directed their men to professional counselling for PTSD, having watched it and lived with it in my own father, PTSD is real and decimating to the human soul. It is an issue C&C and DWD neglect to admit or discuss. the fact that regions where assisted death is legal avoid the issue of medical PTSD and the negative return on health care means it these issues are far greater problems. Truth be told, they are fearful of transparency.
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