A new e-book: FIVE FINAL ACTS

(Amazon cover)

A low-cost digital, updated edition of work from Five Last Acts and The Exit Path with full step-by-step illustrations and detailed evidence. In this thought-provoking digital book, the author develops practical aspects of the complex and often controversial topic of rational suicide methods. With compelling storytelling and meticulous research, the reader is taken on a journey that challenges preconceived ideas, prompting deep awareness of end-of-life methods. Whether you support or oppose the practice, this book encourages deeper contemplation of these sensitive issues.
(500 pages)

The main part of the above book, Sections 1-5, is written primarily as a handbook to those wanting to know they possess the ‘key to the door marked Exit’ should the need one day arrive. General descriptions are followed with step-by-step methods. The Appendixes I-IV, include more technical material for researchers and readers who wish to understand the issues in even greater depth. Sections V-VIII include general information, technical replies, useful background and further contextual material.

We are giving readers of this Blog two opportunities: You are the first to be informed about Five Final Acts (e-book, above) which is due to go on sale on Amazon over the next few days and at a very low price (under £10). Having a digital edition means the work can be read discreetly on a kindle or other portable device. Like the print books, it is a large book, analyzing and detailing self-deliverance methods from many angles, critically and practically. Secondly, if you plan to purchase one of the print books, be aware that production costs mean they are due to increase in price substantially over the next few days, so now is a good time to buy one of these highly-prized manuals. Some people will also maybe choose to use the e-book as a companion to the printed matter.

The e-book is expected to have a short contents at the front and a long contents (including chapter sections) at the end of the book. More details of the print books content (and to help anyone choose between the 400+ page and the even larger compendium edition) can be found by going to the Publications section of this blog (see the Menu bar on the top photograph of the Home Page). The print books contain considerable detail. For citations, please refer to print editions. Please note that e-book formatting does not allow inclusion of certain footnotes that appear in our printed books.

As always if you are simply struggling with suicidal thoughts please seek professional help or call the Samaritans.

Finally if any of this is helpful, do please leave a review of any of the books on Amazon. It really helps.

updated! now live: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CTGM3ZSD
and https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTGM3ZSD

Everyone wants a peaceful death

Download our free peaceful dying ai video (available for 30 days).
Click and choose ‘free download’

note: if you are feeling desperate or suicidal right now please contact The Samaritans.

But as you read this … 17% of dying people are dying in pain.¹

It’s easy to say “most people” die peacefully: but what about the rest?
The people who aren’t “most”?

17% doesn’t even touch those dying in severe indignity, wracked by poor mobility, constant discomfort, or no longer able to do anything making life worth living. 

When we do think about death, everyone will hope to be at least in the top 80 per cent. But you actually stand a much better chance of surviving a plane crash.² 

Then there’s the many that are not in severe pain but have little or no mobility, totally dependent on others, senses afflicted and without any capacity to enjoy things that make life worthwhile. 

Even in countries where euthanasia or assisted suicide is legal, many end up dying of their diseases due to stringent regulation requirements.³ In other countries, the rate is even higher, and the option of ‘just going to Switzerland’ is not available for most people.⁴ 

This is where Exit, the Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Scotland comes in. For more than 40 years we have researched and published self-euthanasia books with minute scientific and moral conscientiousness. For many, our work has been the final resort. When palliative care fails, when dodgy deals of lethal drugs from abroad are not the answer, and when knowledge dawns that most suicides that have not been minutely planned only end in failure, people take a deep breath and look to the science. 

We encourage anyone to seek palliative care in the first instance; to remonstrate if you don’t get the care you need. We detail ways of coping, of planning ahead, of getting the best care and of finding emotional support: but our work also includes the safest, most painless and most reliable ways of bringing things to an end if all else fails. People purchasing our books find they are not filled with white space or glossy claims. Instead, they are filled with the most detailed coverage that can be found. We have never toured the world to gather followers or subscriptions. We don’t encourage suicide: only choice. Our material is available if you need it, and best studied well in advance. If you don’t need it, well at least it will give you peace of mind for an unknown future. 

Don’t be one of the 17 per cent. 

References (links)
1. Severe pain at the end of life: a population-level observational study BMC.
2. It’s 95%. What Are Your Chances of a Surviving a Plane Crash? executiveflyers.
3. In Oregon, patients have to buy the expensive drug themselves from a pharmacy. 36% end up dying of their illness. Regulation of assisted suicide limits the number of assisted deaths Lancet. In the Netherlands, the physician may refuse a request.
4. Costs may be considerable for foreigners, up to £15,000, as well as the need to provide stringent paperwork and act covertly to avoid prevention in one’s home country.

The author is one of a small number of people worldwide with a postgraduate degree in law and ethics in medicine (all three disciplines are involved). He also underwent training by the Samaritans and hospice palliative care to understand ‘all sides’. It is with this sense and love of humanity that he dedicated work not just to academia, the leading law guides, and entries in medical journals, but to the art and science of self-deliverance — self-euthanasia — for those rational adults who want to be sure. He joined the Scottish Exit society in 1986. 

Common queries

Campaigners sometimes hold different views. Our work is well-referenced throughout: we don’t feel a need to ‘justify’ it in public debate: but conflicting claims create anxiety. We cannot answer every query, but some main criticisms are fact-checked on the Responses page to put readers’ minds at rest.

Fact check real information confirmation analysis.

Directives or values… ?

… two methods, working together

Dr Quill’s book on voluntarily stopping eating and drinking frequently refers to values. But knowing someone “cares passionately about death with dignity” will not always help the health care team, or the proxy, decide on the particular course or degree of palliative care from a panoply of end-of- life options. If the directives are not specific enough they may legally invalid. As a brief reminder, here is the letter from the editor of our print magazine which was published in the British Medical Journal. ⁽¹⁾

Values histories are more useful than advance directives

Winter and Cohen recognise one of the problems with advance directives when they correctly state: “The advance refusal of treatment is legally binding provided certain conditions are met …. A problem still exists unless they are precisely worded.” ⁽²⁾

Traditional advance directives are sometimes becoming less useful, partly as a result of lack of data on when treatment becomes futile in different clinical scenarios. When advance directives were first introduced, the application of standard “heroic measures,” often without reasonable expectation of result was far more common than it is today. In that situation, a general advance directive about refusing, say, cardio- pulmonary resuscitation, was an appropriate statement of common sense. The situations facing modern intensive care units are far more complex. The tendency towards precise wording in advance directives to make them legally binding has made it diflicult for them to keep up with the pace of medical technology.⁽³⁾

An alternative approach that is finding increasing favour, either as an adjunct to the advance directive or as a stand alone instrument, is the “values history” Values histories relate to the declarant’s values rather than instructions. Patients’ values are recorded as a basis for decisions on medical treatment (rather than including explicit instructions on specific treatments).

They identify core values and beliefs in the context of terminal care that are important to the patient.”^(4,5)

Values histories take a goal based rather than prescriptive approach, giving guidance on a policy to be implemented rather than the medical means to the end. The legal persuasiveness of them is less strong, but they may be useful adjuncts when a person is seeking to have an advance refusal respected or they may provide valuable guidance in their own right.⁽⁶⁾ In general, the trend towards greater use of values in advance statements is more useful to patients and intensive care doctors than is the trend towards increasingly specific wording of treatments to be refused. Use of values histories should therefore be encouraged.

(Dr Quill’s book, Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking, A Compassionate, Widely Available Option for Hastening Death, edited by Timothy E. Quill, Paul T. Menzel, Thaddeus M. Pope, and Judith K. Schwarz, is available from Oxford University Press and Amazon)

(1) BMJ 1999;319:306-8.

(2) Winter R, Cohen S, ABC of intensive care: withdrawal of treatment.

(3) Docker C, Living wills/advance directives. In: McLean S, ed. Contemporary issues in law, medicine and ethics. Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1996:179-214.
[full chapter now made free online for our readers]

(4) Gibson J, Values history focuses on life and death decisions. Med Ethics 1990;5:1-2, 17.

(5) Lambert P, Gibson J, Nathanson P, The values history: an innovation in surrogate medical decision-making. Law Med Health Care 1990:18:202-12.

(6) Docker C, Living wills. In: Finance and law for the elderly client. London: Butterworths-Tolley.

The Emperor’s new clothes?

We get many queries about miscellaneous ideas that people have found on the Internet or from popular movements ‘recommending’ certain methods. We would ask you to understand that it takes much time and work firstly to investigate other methods but secondly considerable much-needed resources to produce authoritative documents explaining exactly the science that compels us to say when we do not recommend them. A glance through any toxicological manual (e.g. Wexler’s four-volume Encyclopedia of Toxicology) quickly demonstratres many ways to die – though not all of them reliable or peaceful.

In cases where a genuine and necessary variation or idea arises, we usually have been the first to publish an analysis, even if such methods are only suited to some people and not others. Such cases have included compression, the use of nitrogen, and certain pharmaceutical combinations all of which can be obtained legally and effectively provided the proper precautions are taken.

There are best-selling books claiming to explain things quickly – and simply and sometimes they do – sometimes they contain inaccuracies or even contradict each other. We started publishing when we saw that only material that was at that time available in print was based almost entirely on anecdotal evidence. Therefore, we examine things in-depth, and provide analysis and supporting data drawing on peer-reviewed papers in the medical press and the other professions. If there is a serious scientific challenge, we respond in print, point by point. Our books appeal to serious researchers, and often people who have already consumed the popular ‘manuals’ but still have questions. Such questions cannot be answered in a single line or paragraph. We stand by our work and keep abreast of developments but the short answer is that not an awful lot has changed in the years since we released Five Last Acts II. The general public get excited about “new methods”: but often such things turn out to be the Emperor’s New Clothes.

Ed.: please note that the old website at http://www.euthanasia.cc/ although containing much information for students, is predominantly a historical resource. It will shortly be retired. New enquiries are directed to the WordPress blog. 

Highlights from the print edition

The third issue of our new all-colour magazine is proving popular with our supporters. Time to share some snippets with all our online visitors and subscribers!

Our cover story looked at the ancient Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut who had some very creative ideas about about death and dying, as well as embodying traditional ideas about persistence of identity over time and creating a positive attitude both to the dying process and to using mortality as an inspiration in life.

Many of the ancient Egyptian ideas about life and death are misrepresented, even by some Egyptologists, as ‘primitive’ or lacking in philosophy. The great French Egyptologist, Professor Claude Traunecker, suggested that these seemingly animalistic or unnecessarily complex religions were in fact allegory for reality. Key to their understanding is the two souls (each individual Egyptian had several), the ‘ka’ that stayed as the spirit of life and the ‘ba’ that contained the immortal essence.

We printed a warning about fake Nembutal, a hard-to-obtain sleeping drug, when it came to our attention that a number of people have parted with thousands of pounds or dollars to criminals offering it online. Some of the websites pose as right-to-die or pro-euthanasia sites’, even imitating the look of original sites in order to fleece people of their savings. Most customers never see anything for the money. No right-to-die society anywhere in the world sells Nembutal. (Purchasing it is also illegal.)

Dying is an art as well as a science. More than just the method you choose; or even that chooses you. It’s always good to have options. The time, the place, things that might affect your choice – such as mental or physical agility – or the degree of privacy (or lack of it!). We can’t guarantee your life but we try to explore every possible option, whether it is living longer or moving on from this life in a way that suits you best, and in a way that preserves as much dignity as possible. A unique thing about Exit is all our research is fully referenced.* You may read different ‘opinions’ from people with a high profile or claiming to be experts, but do they back up the evidence in a scholarly manner? (This means, do they provide exact references to the professional literature that shows peer-reviewed evidence as to how a particular drug tends to work in one way not in another way). We do this so we can be challenged and so science can move forward in a safe and responsible way. (If that sounds a bit too fussy, remember it is your life that is at stake!)

We printed a careful account of a failed suicide that someone had sent us, together with an extensive commentary. Failures are uncommon: but they are something from which we can learn. There are many ways of ending one’s life that might work. You may “know of someone who…” But what about the one that went wrong? We believe people learn best from honesty and accurate reporting. A failure might occur, for instance due to faulty materials, or last minute panic. Or combination drugs that worked in many cases but not in a particular individual. Scientific knowledge is your friend! We also reprinted a substantial paper written a little while ago on carbon monoxide* (from car exhausts) and how it used to be (fairly, only fairly) reliable in the days before catalytic converters but not now. We added an update on the Japanese craze of using charcoal burners with plusses and minuses and sources of further information.

We include further advice on advance directives (living wills). Not just on making one but on something we feel is very important if you possibly can, and that is talking to someone close to you about your wishes and who you trust to be supportive. Remember… you can refuse treatment even if you don’t have an Advance Directive (or Living Will) but it may help to have one. Be sure that you have listened to and understood all the implications, proposed treatments and medical outcomes before deciding. A general statement of wishes may be helpful in deciding what treatments you wish to refuse but if it is to have legal force it must be specific about which treatments are being refused and in what circumstances. In practice, it is very helpful if the person most likely to be contacted in an emergency is familiar with and supportive of your living will and also if you have discussed it with them in ordinary language. Talk about the sort of outcomes you would find acceptable or unacceptable. Without getting morbid about it chat about possibly scenarios. Just saying, “I wouldn’t want to be a vegetable” is not very helpful guidance, but if the medical team are honestly trying to respect your wishes (a legal requirement) then, in the midst of quite technical medical choices and difficult percentage-risks of different treatment options, finding out what is important to you can be a guide. Things like the degree of mental impairment you might consider acceptable or unacceptable, the degree of physical mobility and dexterity and so on.

A letter to the bereaved is something most of us will have to write at one time or another. Do you maybe have ‘role models’ to bring to mind in such a situation? A surprising, and rather touching one we came across was no less than the ground-breaking physicist, Albert Einstein. In addition to discoveries which changed our understanding of time and fostered a common language of science, Einstein was also a person of enormous wisdom, empathy, and emotional intelligence. He wrote breathtaking love letters, counselled his young son on the secret to learning anything, assured a little girl who wanted to be a scientist but feared her gender would hold her back, and shared the secret of his genius with an inquisitive colleague. He corresponded with Freud on violence, peace, and human nature. But one of his most poignant and humane letters was addressed to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, with whom he had cultivated a warm friendship. After the sudden death of her husband, King Albert, followed closely by the death of her daughter-in-law, Einstein reached out to offer thoughtful and tender solace to his bereaved friend … This excerpt is from a beautiful memoir by American author author Krista Tippett called, Einstein’s God: Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit …

Mrs. Barjansky wrote to me how gravely living in itself causes you suffering and how numbed you are by the indescribably painful blows that have befallen you.

And yet we should not grieve for those who have gone from us in the primes of their lives after happy and fruitful years of activity, and who have been privileged to accomplish in full measure their task in life.

Something there is that can refresh and revivify older people: joy in the activities of the younger generation — a joy, to be sure, that is clouded by dark forebodings in these unsettled times. And yet, as always, the springtime sun brings forth new life, and we may rejoice because of this new life and contribute to its unfolding; and Mozart remains as beautiful and tender as he always was and always will be. There is, after all, something eternal that lies beyond the hand of fate and of all human delusions. And such eternals lie closer to an older person than to a younger one oscillating between fear and hope. For us, there remains the privilege of experiencing beauty and truth in their purest forms.

We also gave readers articles by someone caring for a partner with a terminal illness and an anthropologist’s very human perspective into a different way of looking at death, a mention of our newly-released Conference Report Booklet, a section on inspirational quotes, tips on methods published in our books, and of course a good dash of humour as we have to remember to smile!  Finally here’s a famous story you may know about form the history lessons; but history never quite brings out the human emotions of great life events very well. For that, we have somehow to “fill in the gaps”, to imagine, to use that imagination in a realistic way and perhaps learn from the experience.

The story of George

a dramatisation by Paula Singleton

His wife was holding his hand. She listened to the gurgle of his breathing. His eyes opened and caught hers, held them for a moment. She watched his forehead crease with the effort; his skin seemed waxy and strange. He had not been able to speak for some days but now his mouth fell open. He looked from his wife to their son who stood at her side.

“Goodbye” The word broke the thick silence between breaths. His eyelids slid down very slowly. The lines of effort faded. Yet still the terrible noise came and went. Came. Went.

Mary looked at the doctor.

“Dawson, he’s been ill for so many years.” Mary addressed the doctor who sat at the other side of the dark bed. “We do not wish him to have his life prolonged. He is near the end, is he not?”

Dawson took note of George’s pulse, weak against his own strong fingers.

“Yes ma’am, l believe so.”

He had been physician to George for many years, through good times and bad.

“Sometimes it gets on one’s nerves, I can tell you Dawson! ” A shadow of a smile passed over the doctor’s face as George’s voice rang out clear and humorous in his mind. “Sometimes these people seem to think one is made of stone and can go on for ever…”

Some hours passed. Edward or the doctor or Mary would shift a little every now and then. Only George remained motionless but for the flicker of the bedclothes with each struggle slower than the one before.

Mary still felt George ’s hand clammy in hers.

“How can he keep breathing?” she asked. “He is so weak, Dawson. How much longer?”

“I’m afraid that although he is in deathly coma, it could

be several hours before he breathes his last, ma’am. Every case is different but I have seen patients go on for many more hours before the mechanical end.”

He watched her hair bow towards the bed, her son’s knuckles white against her trembling shoulder. George’s lips fluttered as another breath limped from the tired lungs. The doctor produced a syringe and gently pressed it into George ’s neck.

“What are you doing?” George’s son whispered.

“It’s morphia and cocaine. His heartbeat will just stop. He will feel nothing.”

Mary’s head snapped up. She regarded Dawson, eyes wide.

“That’s not what we meant, Dawson.”

There was a long rattle, then George’s hand went limp in hers. A sudden peace trembled in his face. Silence.

Mary cried out. She looked at the doctor, then back to her husband. He had suffered for twenty years.

“We will say no more of this.” She released George’s hand and drew herself up slowly. “The King is dead,” she said. “Long live the King.”

Sources used by the author in the above dramatic reconstruction of the death of King George V: 1. The Independent 28th November 1986; 2. Wintle J, Kenin R, Dictionary of Biographical Quotation. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1978.

If you are interested in supporting Exit you can use our secure PayPal facility to send a donation or complete an application for membership (which includes the magazine; note applications may take up to 12 weeks to process). Or just continue to enjoy our free Blog!

*Casual readers please note: Exit is a long-standing and responsible organisation, founded in 1980 to research and produce self-euthanasia literature. We do not publish advice on how to end your life online, or by email or in comments to the Blog.

 

Hippocratic or hypocritical?

A long time ago, some time in the 4th Century BCE, an important document was written codifying certain ancient rules of ethics. Attributed to the Hippocrates, a doctor was expected to swear by Asklepius, to teach medicine without charging a fee, he won’t provide pessaries for an abortion and, the bit so favoured by the anti-euthanasia lobby, “I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such.”

It all sounds very noble, even though, whatever the author of the Oath promised, there was no licensing of physicians in Classical times – anyone could treat a patient in any way they wished if the patient agreed. Supplying poison to murder someone was strictly frowned on, yet suicide was not uncommon in the face of serious disease. Aristotle and Pliny speci­fied diseases that were justifications for suicide because of the severe pain they caused. Poison was the favourite way of taking one’s life. The Hippocratic oath was something of a minority statement. Only in Thebes was suicide illegal. When suffering got too bad, it was generally better to get a poison to end one’s life from a physician than from a herbalist. Probably then, as now, a few doctors objected and wanted to distance themselves from such alleviation of suffering.

One cannot help but wonder how many professors of medicine refuse a salary for teaching? Or make a solemn promise to Asclepius? “Taking the Hippocratic Oath”. Few if any institutions still swear by the Hippocratic oath, or even find it easy agree on the ethical duty of a new doctor. The often-repeated phrase, “First, do no harm” doesn’t exist in the original Oath. But would it stand up to rational analysis?

Obviously one way of never doing any harm would not be to treat anyone in case something went wrong (and in modern America, in case of a lawsuit). In practice, doctors not only treat patients by balancing doing probably good against avoiding probable harm, use triage to see who to treat first, and give deadly medicine quite often – though carefully dispensed to kill cancer cells, bacteria, or simply kill pain. ‘Doing no harm’ is a starting point and actually the first rule of trauma care, proceeding in a methodical manner, gathering information and stabilising the patient.

Once the patient is stabilised and options for doing good arise, the next question that arises (and one of law) is, what does the patient want?

Contrary to what you are maybe expecting me to say at this point, I do not think that there is never a place for paternalism in medicine. A classic case that came up and reported in the medical press concerned an elderly woman who had a simple, easily curable cancer. She refused to go to hospital as she believed she would die there if she went. A new doctor seeing her ‘bullied’ her a bit and told her, “Get in that ambulance, right now!” She did, and was duly discharged after successful treatment. But that is an unusual case: while a doctor is an expert on what treatments can be offered, the patient is normally the expert on what outcome he or she would prefer.

To some, it appears ‘obvious’ (clearly not, as people on both sides of the debate think it is ‘obvious yet disagree!) Death, whether one’s own or someone else’s is not, in the general run of things, the most palatable of options. Yet sometimes it is the ‘least worst option.’

In Antigone, Sophokles states that nobody is so silly as to wish to die: ‘Who prays to die is mad.’ ‘No man is so foolish that he is enamoured of death.’ However, in another play, The Women of Trachis, he refers to the dilemma presented by assisted euthanasia: The protagonist Herakles, who is suffering from unbearable pain, asks his son, Hyllus, to help him end his life:

“Lay my body thereupon and kindle it with flaming pine-torch. And let no tear of mourning be seen there.”

Hyllus complains that in so doing, he will ‘become a murderer’ and will be showing disrespect to the gods. “What a deed dost thou require of me my father that I should become the murderer guilty of thy blood. … Father, father, how can you? You are asking me to be your murderer, polluted with your blood.” And Heracles replies:

        “No, I am not. I ask you to be my healer, or healer of my sufferings, sole physician of my pain.”

It is perhaps easy to speak about ‘high principles’ in the abstract. Somehow seeing someone you love enduring a suffering that you, as a physician, could end, pulls at a sense of humanity in a different way.

Until physicians unite and have the courage to do the right thing, properly and within a good law, people will take matters into their own hands.

Further reading:
Euthanasia and suicide in antiquity: viewpoint of the dramatists and philosophers
On “Battlefield Euthanasia: Should Mercy-Killings Be Allowed?”
Early management of the multiply injured patient (A&E textbook)
Myth vs Fact: ‘First Do No Harm’
First Do No Harm (Harvard Medical School)
“First do no harm” revisited (BMJ)
Medical oaths and declarations (BMJ)
So long, Hippocrates. Medical students choose their own oaths
Suicide in ancient Greece
Poisons, Poisoning and the Drug Trade (in Ancient Rome)
Would Hippocrates Rewrite His Oath? A new declaration
Hippocrates (Britannica)
The Oath (Greek and translation)

From the bookshelf:
The Hippocratic Oath and the Ethics of Medicine by Steven Miles
Hippocratic Oaths: Medicine and Its Discontents by Raymond Tallis

 

Ruminations of the Ancients

Classical philosophy, Socrates and stuff, has occasionally had the reputation of being rather dry. But could it actually have the power to get to the heart of our feelings about death and dying?

There are many studies that go far beyond my cursory reading of Plato, but I first open the Collected Works (a free e-book) at the Apologia, where Socrates defends his attitude to death in what seems a straightforward manner:

“… fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.”

It sounds very clever but somehow doesn’t quite reach the heart. Plato seems to embody Socrates as a speaker who provokes a response. Some contend that Socrates uses a set of strategies, not to eliminate his fear of death but to control it. In the Phaedo, Socrates says first a philosopher must completely avoid money and power. He must devalue relationships such as those with friends and family. Next, one should regularly rehearse arguments about immortality until one believes them, and also tell myths and stories about the afterlife to speculate about its benefits.

The chances of Socrates convincing his audience is seriously impaired when we consider reasonable human desires Most people after all want to form and sustain intimate relationships with friends, family and loved ones. They become emotionally attached, and this attachment increases their fear of death, Socrates suggests, because death serves as the ultimate threat to the continuation of personal relationships.

Neoplatonists, who came considerably later than Plato, developed much of his ‘higher’
philosophy into a system that would greatly influence several other schools of thought
including Gnosticism, Isalm, Christianity and Theurgy. They respected and acknowledged the truths expounded by Plato, but also looked for some more practical methods that could be used both by philosophers and lay people.

The Greek terms of Logos, Eros and Agape were refined and abstracted so they were
suitable both for polytheistic religions of the time and also the newly emerging
monotheisms, as well as their own apophatic, mystical, philosophical or magical practices (in the cases of Neoplatonists like Proclus and Iamblichus). Eros became the supreme principle of divine attraction between any two things (not merely the English sense of ‘erotic’), and the basis through which the universal order is maintained. It was only through this that the selfless love of agape could be achieved.

Through this lens, our relationships with others also become a way to realise who we are ourselves, just as any object (in physics as in persons) is defined in space and time by its relation to other noumena, and objects to which it is drawn or repelled. The over-riding and highest principle inherited by the Neoplatonists was beauty, which shows all things balanced in their correct (bound by Eros) relationship to each other.

The idea is that by defining our individual correct relationship to other people in our sphere, we may arrive at a sense of oneself almost through their eyes, and experience the beauty of relationship without attachment. It is a lasting gift to them, and maintains the beauty and goodness of the relationship within our own perception while decreasing the attachment, thus reducing the fear of death upon which Socrates had expounded.

It might not be possible, or even desirable, to attempt to convey complex philosophical ideas in a one-page newsletter article, but perhaps by inclining our minds towards beauty, whether it be seeking out the works of a great philosopher, a favourite uplifting poem, or the sense of beauty in one’s relationship with another person, one can feel a sense of knowing an almost everlasting beauty , that is not diminished by letting go . . .

 

The above article was taken from the current Exit magazine. If you are interested in our print edition, it is free to members. If you are interested in joining and supporting our work, please go to http://www.euthanasia.cc/new_app.html

Our current full colour magazine:

THIS ISSUE: CONTENTS IN FULL
I’m not afraid asks why so many people don’t take out ‘insurance’ on knowing how to die peacefully.
Ludovic Kennedy: Courage – An essay by the famous late campaigner for voluntary euthanasia.
Alison Britton: Ethics in Europe – Professor Britton compares the ethics of euthanasia approaches in different countries.
Quote/Unquote – some of our favourite informative, humorous or inspirational quotes about death and dying.
Ruminations of the ancients – featured in this issue of ExitEuthanasia Blog.
Pam Ferguson: Hastening Death – legal perspectives by the Professor of Law.
Off the bookshelf – we review Michael Green’s Dealing with Death, Oliver James’ Contented Dementia, and in a ‘curiosity corner’, of ‘dangerously dead’, Elizabeth Hurran’s historical survey, Dissecting the Criminal Corpse.
Your letters – regular news and views from members.
Special feature on how thinking about death can increase happiness.
Research: From terror to joy – Kentucky experiments in psychological science
Humour – (since we don’t think death has to be morbid!)
Self-deliverance books reviewed – we examine the features of our own publications together with lengthy reviews of the books by our friends, Derek Humphry and Philip Nitschke. Each fills a different niche and we look at the plusses and minuses (and we also invited feedback from the authors).
Challenges & progress – diversity and congruence in the self-deliverance literature.
Paralympic Mariecke Vervoort – the Paralympic star’s personal views on euthanasia
The Flickering Light – reviews of two movies touching on positive attitudes to death and dying
More from our postbag – an extended reply on a number of issues from the Dignitas organisation in Switzerland
Terminal fasts: Jains, science & law – advantages and dangers of fasting to death (voluntarily refusing food and liquids) with a criticakl look at teh science.

ExitEuthanasia Blog, in accordance with UK laws, does not offer information online or by email that could be construed as advice on committing suicide. Technical information on such matters is reserved for our print publications (click ‘Publications’ in the top menu for details).

Life in dying

No-one can really feel the pain of another when a loved one dies. Or the the moment that another experiences and feels in the minutes and seconds before that person dies. But does it have to be such a bad thing?

London’s famous Southbank is launching a new event, How Do We Live With Death from 22nd February to 25th March, it asks, “Does modern society distance us from our own mortality? And how are we able to live with the death of a loved one without the promise of seeing them in an afterlife? Death and taxes unite us all, so join us for an exploration of the way that death affects our life, an issue with which thinkers, artists and composers have long struggled.”

Exit approaches the question in many ways, and with our motto, taking away the fear of death. We believe there are both physical and emotional challenges to be surmounted, as well as that area that some call spiritual, some call philosophical, or some would simply say, “getting my head round it”.

Physical questions that can be covered include how best to approach one’s illness realistically in terms of treatments, making what is left of life worthwhile for as long as that is possible. Knowing what symptoms can be treated successfully, and which ones mostly can not. Knowing how to get the best out of terminal care. And the aspect we are most associated with (though not our only concern), how to draw things to a close a bit sooner rather than a bit later. Even that knowledge can be empowering. We don’t make grandiose claims about a magic pill, or that it will be easier or harder than it sounds: we just research and publish the science.

The emotional aspects are just as important, how we cope, how our loved ones will cope, how we should tell people. (We deal with these too!) But the question most people will discuss is, “How do I live when it sinks in that I am going to die?” – a question that becomes ever more pertinent as we enter later years, as serious illness looms, and as friends or family members die before us. It is something we can only put off for so long. Facing the inevitable prospect is probably better than avoidance, but is it possible not simply to make it a negative but to make it an inspirational positive?

In coming months we hope to share with our Exit Euthanasia Blog readers some excerpts from our print magazine on this very subject (please note that we do not publish precise instructions on self-euthanasia on the Blog, but provide updates within the awareness that the Blog goes to a general audience of all ages).

The Southbank Centre is correct in that Western society distances us from mortality, it distances us from death. A little while ago, I interviewed a member who had embraced the lifestyle of Nepal. One of the main features she spoke of was how death was so much a fact of life. Biers were carried in the street, cremations performed on an open pyre. Death was never far away, but not in a bad sense. Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs commenced work on their tombs the minute they had ascended to the royal throne: the idea that the “heart was weighed” after death was a guiding principle in life, each action to be performed with Maat, an idea of justice and balance, so that one might set an example in all things. A much publicized tale from Bhutan recently by travel writer Eric Weiner explained the habit of the Bhutanese in thinking about death “for five minutes every day” as a cure for panic, psychosomatic problems, or simply lack of contentment with life. Socrates and the Platonists of Ancient Greece found that much fear of death was rooted in personal relationships that would not be continued. To counter this, one can dissociate from relationships and then re-enter them as part of the joys of life, yet with an attitude of balance, loving appropriateness (or the Egyptian maat).

The Southbank Event may well have a strong emphasis on Christianity, which is one of the common threads for most people in the U.K., but there will be “talks, panels and debates covering topics such as whether we have the right to die, burial rites, apocalyptic religions and the way to immortality.” Panelists include the Bishop of Leeds and the London Philharmonic Orchestra is showcasing Berg’s Violin Concerto, dedicated to ‘the memory of an angel’, which “conveys a bottomless depth of personal loss.” They also perform Penderecki’s St Luke Passion, a work which “struggles and laments towards redemption.” There is, however, a “Right To Die” debate on assisted dying (1:00 pm, 4th March), a ‘Death Cafe’ (same day) and other talks, discussions and events that increase awareness of mortality. Does it sound like the upbeat, constructive approach for instance of many TED lectures on the subject? Perhaps not at first glance: but given the Southbank’s formidable reputation for great events it will quite possibly be a huge success! Let us know your thoughts.

Read the full line up of events and how to obtain passes at the Southbank website, “We Live With Death” Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, 22 Feb – 25 Mar
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/festivals-series/how-do-we-live-death?

For EXIT magazine (free with membership), go to http://www.euthanasia.cc/ and
click “join” on the left hand side.

For TED Lectures on death and dying, visit their website at http://www.ted.com

To get free updates on this Blog by email, or to find our publications, use the right hand column and click on subscribe or the links to our books, or the top menu on publications for more information. Exit works in the self-deliverance movement independently but as part of a non-competitive environment. We review similar work by other people and organisations to demonstrate both diversity and congruence. Our work is supported by extensive (published) scientific analysis but our only funding comes from donations and memberships.
(You can also donate using the button in the right hand column).

 

 

Another year, and for some a final rest

We salute some of the beautiful friends-in-spirit who decide about their Exit this year.

Betsy Davis threw a farewell party with friends and family in July. It was her way to say goodbye before becoming one of the first California residents to take life-ending drugs under a new law.

Betsy, a 41-year-old artist with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) emailed the invites with a special message: “These circumstances are unlike any party you have attended before, requiring emotional stamina, centeredness and openness.” And she added just one rule: No crying in front of her.

Ms Davis Davis planned a detailed schedule for the gathering, including the precise hour she planned to slip into a coma, sharing her plans with guests in the invitation.
One woman brought a cello. Someone else played a harmonica. There were cocktails, pizzas, and a screening in her room of one of her favourite films, “The Dance of Reality,” based on the life of a Chilean film director.

See the trailer for The Dance of Reality here: https://youtu.be/LViGerHOA28
Watch the news review of Betsy Davis’ farewell party: news clip
See the news announcement on California new law: 5th U.S. State to legalise

Paralympian Marieke Vervoort says planing her own euthanasia is enabling her to live longer. The power to take her own life, she says, is really what’s keeping her alive. A silver and bronze medalist, Vervoort says that knowledge, that she can have a safe and easy death, gives her the strength to keep going.

Her silver medal in the T52 400m in Rio de Janeiro came after 30 hours of violent sickness and a day on a rehydrating drip in the Paralympic village. Her bronze in the 100 metres came after a bladder infection had sent her temperature soaring. 37-years-old, the Belgian wheelchair racer suffers so much pain she wakes up her neighbours by screaming in the night. Marieke Vervoort has a progressive, incurable spinal condition, diagnosed when she was 21, that ravages her body. Her fiercely defended independence dwindles. She has visits from nurses four times a day, and also an assitance labrador, Zenn, who fetches items for her, helps her dress and supports her during epileptic attacks or when she is crying.

“When I’m happy, she’s happy,” says Vervoort. “When I’m mad, she’s scared, and she goes to sit in another part of the house so she’s not bothering me. When I’m crying, she’ll come to lie down with me, lick my face, hug me. When I’m going to have an epileptic attack, she pushes her head between my knees. She is saying to me, ‘Marieke, you have to lay down. Go to a safe spot because something is going to happen to you.'”

Triathlon had become her passion when the disease made her reliant on a wheelchair. She was world champion twice, but in 2008 her condition deteriorated so much she had to give up the sport. It was the lowest point in her life. The pain was agonising, the loss of independence insupportable. She told her friend she wanted to kill herself. “She said, ‘there’s no point in living, no point in going on because it’s too hard, it’s too bad.'” It was Marieke’s coach and therapist that recommended she speak with Dr Wim Distelmans, a leading palliative care expert, and who suggested another option: that of euthanasia. She decided to sign the papers.

“If I didn’t have those papers, I wouldn’t have been able to go into the Paralympics. I was a very depressed person – I was thinking about how I was going to kill myself,” she explains.”To me, death is peaceful, something that gives me a good feeling.”

“All those people who get those papers here in Belgium – they have a good feeling. They don’t have to die in pain. They can choose a moment, and be with the people they want to be with. With euthanasia you’re sure that you will have a soft, beautiful death.”

“I prepared everything. I wrote to every person who’s in my heart. I wrote to every person a letter when I could still do it with my hands,” she says. “I wrote texts that they have to read. I want that everybody takes a glass of Cava, [and toasts me] because she had a really good life. She had a really bad disease, but thanks to that disease, she was able to do things that people can only dream about, because I was mentally so strong. “I want people to remember that Marieke was somebody living day by day and enjoying every little moment.”

See Marieke’s speech in Rio de Janeiro: Euronews feature and video

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Our first all colour issue

Print subscribers were treated to our first all-colour issue last month and feedback so far has been great!

We have to balance costs carefully so every penny we spend has t0 be justified under the benefits it brings to our members. A colour magazine is more expensive than a black and white one, but when we took it as a proportion of overall costs including postage the difference turned out to be miniscule.For legal reasons, we can put far more explicit information in the magazine than we can in the online Blog, but here’s a round up of the latest one (Volume 36 No.1) for those who are interested –

Helium climbs back  The current situation analysed and the likelihood of helium tanks being ‘diluted’ with air. USA vs Europe.
Quote/unquote A round up of moving, inspiring or eye-opening quotations from the best in literature, the medical press and philosophy
Advancing discussion (by David Donnison) The illustrious social science professor from Glasgow looks at some options for real progress
Standing firm   (by Ken Jones) examines meditation techniques clinically proven that can help in facing inevitable death in the best possible way
Off the bookshelf  Our round-up of some books of interest
Unsung birth of the helium method  Helium brought a new era to self-euthanasia, but who brought us helium?
Rising costs of death  You’ve worked out your insurance policy and how to take things into your own hands should the need ever arise: but have you factored in the cost?
Eavesdropping on your decisions?  Emailing someone about your end of life decisions? When government invasions of privacy can mean you door can be forced open.
The good news on helium  A run down of what’s what, and a simplified approach to nitrogen euthanasia
The Carloway decision  Technical analysis of the Scottish legal decision and what it really means
Death as inspiration  A famous motivational speech on why we shouldn’t fear death
Living wills 7-step scenario  A compact reference guide to approaching this important document, condensed from our new membership pack
An organic burial suit  Really? where art meets dying well
Nitro USA  Some statistics on the American take-up on the ‘new nitrogen method’
Private dying & staying safe  How to protect yourself from prying eyes
AGM report  It’s feels quite informal, but follows a strict methodology to ensure that all cost undertakings are measured in terms of benefits to our paid-up print  members
Heart of Darkness  wrestling with death through one of the most powerful novels of all time
Needless inconvenience (H28)  They make it sound so simple (yes it can be – except when it goes horribly wrong!)
Self-deliverance costs compared  A rough answer to financial aspects

The print magazine is aimed at mature adults who want more specific, practical information to look at the long term of having a safety strategy, a “key to the door marked ‘Exit.'” If it is news and updates you are looking for, those are available free from many sources, including this Blog (please scroll down the right-hand side for links to online news information from professional bodies and sister organisations). You will also find a search box to look for specific blogs on particular subjects and some links to various laws around the world.

A big thank you again, both to out Blog and Print subscribers, for all your feedback and support!