So_Cynical
The Contrarian Averager
- Joined
- 31 August 2007
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Coincidentally i had a look a few weeks ago...something like 600 a vile/bottle i think...and the
fine for illegal importation into Australia was 200K from memory.
I'd like a bottle of Nembutal ready for when the time comes , I will decide my exit .
Not to keen to go to Mexico to get any , but would consider paying top dollar for getting some in the near future .
Stupid stupid stupid ''' when you can take your old dog thats suffering incurable pain down to the local vet for a shot of Nembutal but Can't ask your Doc for same !
Notice the price was only $30 US a bottle in Mexico back in 07 , check it out now .
Coincidentally i had a look a few weeks ago...something like 600 a vile/bottle i think...and the
fine for illegal importation into Australia was 200K from memory.
The problem is, Bobby, that along with the fine, usually between $300 - $400, they confiscate the Nembutal. So your plans for a peaceful exit have failed.Yep that sounds about right , seems the Mexicans have noticed how desperate the Aussies are
As for the fine , who gives a sh*t about that when all your thinking about is a peaceful exit ?
YOUR report ("Alarm as death pacts on rise”, 16/7) of how the eminent conductor Edward Downes and his terminally ill wife, accompanied by their two children, travelled from England to the Dignitas suicide clinic in Switzerland where they were assisted to die, gives encouragement not alarm to supporters of voluntary euthanasia in Australia.
My wife Dorothy and I have enjoyed long, good and happy lives together and are aware that they are soon coming to an end. I’m 83 and Dorothy will be 80 in September. We both have ongoing health difficulties and inevitable ageing difficulties and we have talked about the Swiss option and whether we should seek it out and have that small amount of dignity in death that it offers while it is still open to us, as Edward and Joan Downes did, but why should we have to go to Switzerland? Suicide itself has not been a crime in Australia for years.
What alarms us is the arrogance of those who insist on the right to impose their views on others in a field of belief such as this; to tell others, such as me and my wife, what we should or should not do.
Kep Enderby
Balmain, NSW
You have got to admire Edward Downes for this.
This is the type of suicide that you can't criticise. Well done!
The longtime BBC Philharmonic and Royal Opera conductor, known for championing British composers, and his wife died at an assisted-suicide clinic in Switzerland. Both were ailing.
July 15, 2009
British maestro Edward Downes, who conducted the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Opera but struggled in recent years as his hearing and sight failed, died Friday along with his wife at an assisted-suicide clinic in Switzerland. He was 85.
Their children said Tuesday that the couple died "peacefully and under circumstances of their own choosing" at a Zurich clinic run by the group Dignitas.
"After 54 happy years together, they decided to end their own lives rather than continue to struggle with serious health problems," said a statement from the couple's son and daughter, Caractacus and Boudicca.
The statement said Downes, who became Sir Edward when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, had become almost blind and increasingly deaf. His 74-year-old wife, Joan, was a former dancer, choreographer and television producer who had devoted years to working as his assistant. British newspapers reported that she had been diagnosed with cancer.
Hi Nun,
u can relax, they were elderly and married 54 yrs
the "kids" are alright
...
It can also be bought in a few other countries.
It's fraught with potential problems. He discussed other methods/drugs because of the difficulties of bringing Nembutal back into the country.
The capacity to die in this way is all many people of Mr Downes age want.You have got to admire Edward Downes for this.
This is the type of suicide that you can't criticise. Well done!
The capacity to die in this way is all many people of Mr Downes age want.
At that stage of their lives, people should not have to travel to the other side of the world and die away from everything familiar.
Completely agree, Chris. The best we can do in Australia is to have a document which is variously called a "Living Will" or an "Advance Health Directive", depending on which State you live in.Re Garpal Gumnut’s post #260:
I remember hearing a few years ago about a US nurse who had tattooed on her arm, “No life support, pain relief only”.
Recently I asked my doctor if that would work here. (He’s probably got me marked down as a suicide risk now.)
He said similar to what your ambo friend said and that the medics would ignore it because it might have been done while drunk or something.
I asked him, “What about a wristband?”
He said that might work because it would be a conscious decision to wear the wristband each day, but the paramedics are still required to resuscitate and stabilize the patient so that the medics can properly assess the situation.
If I’m wearing the wristband and unconscious and seriously mangled in a car accident and my life is slowly ebbing away, as per "God’s will", I think the last thing I want is for someone to interfere with the process and stabilize me so I can spend my remaining days as a dribbling half-dead quadriplegic in a wheelchair or something. (No offence meant to all those happy life-loving quadriplegics.)
How can we stop the medical profession from interfering with our wishes to be allowed to die when our number comes up?
The case of Lisette was discussed at length during Philip Nitschke's workshop.Recently I saw a 2004 documentary on ABC1 titled “Mademoiselle and the Doctor”. It was about a French born West Australian academic, Lisette Nigot, who terminated her life after deciding she did not want to live beyond 80 years of age, when she felt her mind and body would start to deteriorate. If you missed it you can download the DivX copy via uTorrent.
She was in good health and apparently not depressed but she feared that if she waited any longer she might not have the ability to suicide when the time came, because of our restrictive laws, so she felt compelled to make a “preemptive strike”.
In her final statement she wrote, “Since lawful assistance to die at one’s chosen moment is not accepted in this cowardly restrictive society, I am taking the matter into my own hands.”
It’s just pathetic that our gutless politicians refuse to face up to the issue and allow people to decide their own fate, and force them to take actions such as this. Instead, they take the easy path and pass legislation to ban the publication of material that could be considered incitement to suicide, and try to censor the internet so people can’t access the information they want.
Recently I saw a 2004 documentary on ABC1 titled “Mademoiselle and the Doctor”. It was about a French born West Australian academic, Lisette Nigot, who terminated her life after deciding she did not want to live beyond 80 years of age, when she felt her mind and body would start to deteriorate. If you missed it you can download the DivX copy via uTorrent.
She was in good health and apparently not depressed but she feared that if she waited any longer she might not have the ability to suicide when the time came, because of our restrictive laws, so she felt compelled to make a “preemptive strike”.
In her final statement she wrote, “Since lawful assistance to die at one’s chosen moment is not accepted in this cowardly restrictive society, I am taking the matter into my own hands.”
It’s just pathetic that our gutless politicians refuse to face up to the issue and allow people to decide their own fate, and force them to take actions such as this. Instead, they take the easy path and pass legislation to ban the publication of material that could be considered incitement to suicide, and try to censor the internet so people can’t access the information they want.
Well, the politicians who passed such a statute in the Northern Territory a decade ago seemed pretty sane to me. And that law had multiple safeguards and was working well. Then Kevin *****Andrews of the Howard government (a godbotherer of course) had to interfere and strip the Territory of its perfectly OK law.I think that Euthanasia should be made legal within Australia but with very strict legal guidlines. In saying this, however, there is really more than one side to the argument which makes implementing the laws rather problematic. If Euthanasia was made legal within Australia I believe it would open up loopholes within our legal system, as not everyone is nice and caring within our society.
No sane politician either would pass statutes allowing Euthanasia as they would risk losing a large percentage of their votes from the church who play an influential and rather crucial role in politics and who condemn 'direct Euthanasia'.
Such complicity is fraught with the main problem of it being illegal to assist suicide in any way. It's possible for a life sentence to be imposed on conviction.Lastly, something which i'm not sure has been mentioned yet, but the psychological effects that will possibly burden the individual who is complicit in the taking of their friend or family members life.
I agree that it's unlikely at least in the next decade.In the near future, however, I dont see Euthanasia being made legal within the confines of the Australian legal system because of the many disadvantages associated with it.
Veni
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