From "Euthanasia Advocate Who Assisted in Woman’s Suicide Dies in Germany/Dr. Florian Willet had been under investigation in Switzerland after being present when an American woman died using a so-called suicide pod" (NYT).
"Central to the questions around the woman’s death is the use of the Sarco capsule. The device, which can be transported to a location of a user’s choosing, is an airtight pod with a window. Inside is a button that initiates the process of replacing life-giving oxygen with nitrogen, killing the person inside within minutes.... 'In the final months of his life, Dr. Florian Willet shouldered more than any man should,' Mr. Nitschke wrote. 'He knew that he did nothing illegal or wrong, but his belief in the rule of law in Switzerland was in tatters.'"
Stay and fight, if you believe in your cause. And yet, what if the cause is the power to push the button on the escape pod when troubles abound?
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54 ટિપ્પણીઓ:
serious question: how many deaths in Canada are Medical Asssistance In Dying? Is is Still "only" 1 in 20? or higher?
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/publications/health-system-services/annual-report-medical-assistance-dying-2023.html
Even MORE Serious Question: WHO gets to decide if a person Wants to end their life?
i mean, SURE, if the person wants to.. but What if they're Crazy? and think that they DON'T want to end their lives?
Doesn't the Government HAVE TO step in and "help" end it all?
What is a "chamber-like device"? I suppose it's a device - a thing that does something - in the shape of a chamber - a place to be. But it's a clumsy formulation. For the headline, why not use "Sarco device," and then clarify in the body? Or go with "suicide pod" in the headline.
I do not like assisted suicide. Thankfully I've never been so desperate as to consider ending my life before its natural run, so I don't think I have a great deal of moral authority here personally, but the concept, taken philosophically, leads to all sorts of quandaries, including this one - that the assistant will suffer (in this case, because he wasn't believed about the woman's death - on which I have no opinion).
Mr. Nietzsche -- er, Nitschke -- has an interest in presenting Willet as devastated by the law rather than the nihilism of assisting in someone's death.
This is a paraphrase from some novel I once read:
You shouldn't kill yourself because life is the most important thing you have. Why? Because without it, you'd be dead.
Euthanasia should be safe, legal, and rare. The rare part worries me.
Oh, and the proposal to extend MAID to include the mentally ill strikes me as barbaric, even if some of those who would use it might think of death as a relief, to the extent that they can judge in those worst moments.
and yet this from "The Last Resort" website:
The Last Resort does not assist young people to die, unless they have a serious physical illness (ie. not psychiatric).
and yet, "Dr Florian Willet died in Germany on 5 May 2025. He was 47."
and yet, "In the early days of 2025, Florian ‘fell’ from the third floor of his Zurich apartment building.
He would spend the following three months undergoing surgery and in rehab in Switzerland.
During this time he was cared for by a full psychiatric team. His psychiatric discharge report of January 2025 stated that he was suffering from: ‘an acute polymorphic psychotic disorder (F23.0) which is currently subsiding under antipsychotic therapy, and which has developed following the stress of the pre-trial detention and the associated processes’.
Florian’s spirit was broken."
If your spirit is broken then it can be put back together. This seems weird and cowardly.
Zyklon B is still available. And let's not forget good old carbon monoxide. Every human a wanted human.
Ampersand, "safe, legal, and rare" never seems to work, does it? There's part of me that wants the same - but then I remember how it worked with abortion, and I look at how this legal right, where it exists, keeps being expanded to cover more and more people (sick children? The mentally ill?), and I despair of our ever being able to thread this needle.
The assorted articles are a lovely representation of the stealthy menace that is part of assisted suicide, which is an avoidance of the facts and the use of euphemism to soothe any objections to the procedure. None of the articles that I scanned address the death of Willet head on. One of them admits it was an 'assisted suicide'. A couple of them note that Willet 'fell' three stories after being released from jail, but none of the circumstances are relayed about his recovery.
It's a non-reported story that doesn't even have the basic facts stated clearly. Some of the articles have trigger warnings up front warning of the subject matter - and at the end, there's a brief statement on seeking help for suicidal thoughts, Yay.
In Canada there have been several cases of MAID whereby the subject has changed their mind or otherwise objected, but subjected anyway. They should really call it MAIM, Medical Assistance in Murder.
I imagine medical doctors hate the part where the lady got to be in the forest to die.
Perchance to dream? People have and have always had the option to end their own life. I don't think people should exercise that option but there isn't really anything I can do, or want to do, to stop them. That being said, I am steadfastly opposed to creating a clean, bureaucratic, acceptable way for people to take their own life. If a person can't be bothered to drink a bunch of wine, take a hot bath, and slit their own wrists how badly do they really want to end their own life? The more sterile the option to end one's own life, the more socially acceptable it becomes, the more individuals will feel social pressure to end their own lives when they feel like they are a burden. The more this occurs the cheaper life becomes. Our concept of Human rights is based on humans being inherently special. Without a religious backing for why humans are so special all we have left to support that concept is our shared emotions regarding human life which is largely based on how human life is treated. Ending human life because the expected future experiences of that human are bad enough lowers the perceived emotional value of human life in and of itself.
Who else thinks of Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green?
And yeah Soylent Green is people, so what?
It is too easy to psychologically coerce an unhappy and lonely person into a death is the only solution frame of mind. That's why assisted suicide is illegal in 40 states. Where the laws permit assisted self-destruction, the assistant must be duly-licensed physician, and not some happy-go-lucky jerk with a tank of nitrogen.
And so we have have Florian Willet, formerly a confidently smiling self-appointed problem solver, ego-crushed by the least objectionable penal system on Earth. So sorry, Mister Willet. Have you considered ending it all?
He died doing what he loved.
Civilizations are sustained by the resilient and courageous. Are we're better off without the brittle and craven?
Let us consider whether there is a Fate Worse Than Death.
The device, which can be transported to a location of a user’s choosing, is an airtight pod with a window.
Even Iggy Pop thought that was too extreme for his show? After all, Iggy has a “Lust for Life.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jQvUBf5l7Vw
Well played, Clyde. Well played.
This capsule would fit Luigi Mangione. I don’t want to hear anymore BS about cruel lethal injection. In 1953 we executed the killers of Bobby Greenlease less than 100 days after the murder. What man has done, man can do.
It's a chamber pot for the soul.
As I recall, linebacker Ray Nitschke used to have his own process: a devastatingly hard tackle and a headlock.
So the device malfunctioned and Florian choked the woman to death with his bare-hands-like devices?
One Eye said...
"Who else thinks of Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green?"
i think about that movie every time i hear about Canada's MAID to order plans.
How BIG are jumps, from?
euthanasia for the terminally ill, in terrible pain..
euthanasia for the terminally ill, OR those in terrible pain..
euthanasia for the sad and depressed..
euthanasia for anyone that want it..
euthanasia for ALL, whether they want it or not..
of course, now we're at Logan's Run, instead of Soylent Green
One Eye said...
"Who else thinks of Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green?
And yeah Soylent Green is people, so what?"
Atheist Richard Dawkins ‘Looking Forward’ to When Society Accepts Human Cannibalism
"Responding to the news that meat harvested from the stem cells of animals could soon be hitting are shelves, famed atheist Richard Dawkins seemed to suggest the same could be done with humans if we could only get over the “taboo” of Cannibalism.
In vitro animal products, often referred to as “clean meat,” are made from harvested stem cells from living livestock, and are grown in a lab over a number of weeks. Josh Tetrick, CEO of clean meat manufacturer “JUST” believes that the new product could be on our supermarket shelves by the end of the year.
Tetrick told CNN that chicken nuggets, sausage and foie gras created using the controversial manufacturing process could be served in restaurants in the US and Asia “before the end of 2018″ but admitted that cultured meat faces many obstacles. His products will come up against “gnarly problems, communication issues, regulatory issues,” he told the Guardian."
"Если Бога нет, всё позволено"
"If there is no God, everything is permitted." (Dostoyevsky)
I don't understand how people can not be aware of the possible consequences of their actions. How did the reactions of the Swiss authorities catch him by surprise? I wonder if such blind spots are associated with wupport of assisted suicide.
Why did the lady who died in the pod have strangulation marks? Did she do that to herself if he didn't?
He died doing what he loved.
@Clyde, +1
It would be interesting to see autopsy photos of Epstein's neck and see if it could have been done with a noose made from a bedsheet where a significant drop was not possible, instead of camera footage that purports to "prove" that he was in his cell alone.
Every country that has legalized euthenasia has immediately snowmobiled down the slippery slope to killing healthy people who are depressed or suicidal or have entirely treatable conditions. It's the grim reaper equivalent of mutilating confused youths' genitals and hormones. We will someday look back in horror.
Unbearable disease and cancer agony are real. Don't legislate it. Don't legalize it: there are many quiet ways people can manage death on their own.
Legalize it, and it will become a problem. They tried to kill my brother, who cost too much, though he was still fighting. His last words to me were "don't stop the dialysis." Nature took its course, and he was dead a week later. It was a healing, loving week. He had been sick and disabled all his life, but still worked as long as he could and contributed and paid taxes.
He was a human, the strongest I knew. Chronic patients and the disabled are like that and statistically oppose state-approved euthenasia. I stood guard at his hospital door. Wonder why?
Creepy
The older I get, the less problem I have with assisted suicide. An acquaintance of mine has brain cancer, he had a DNR, he passed out, they resuscitated him against his written wishes. That was months ago, he is still fading in and out mentally, but you quickly realize that when he seem "with it" that he is somehow feigning it, he can't maintain a coherent conversation beyond rote greetings and responses, like a more sophisticated version of a parrot, and he spends most of his time sleeping, while half his skull is now occupied by a tumor. Setting him adrift on an ice floe would seem an honorable death in comparison.
Gone was his warm smile and self-confidence.
It's all fun and games until you get charged with strangling your first customer.
One man's murder is another man's warranty issue.
"She was in there banging on the glass and I'm on hold with fucking tech support like forever. They kept playing Lovely Rita Meter Maid over and over. I mean, for Pete's sake! And I'm pacing around with my phone to ear. I keep holding up a finger, giving her an encouraging look, but she was very impatient and rude. I could read her lips. She called me a motherfucker. So finally I'm like, "Alright...Alright, Bitch...
What? Of course I kept her deposit. Well...I mean sure, if you want to get technical, but she's dead isn't she? A deal's a deal."
"He knew that he did nothing illegal or wrong..." Says a startling number of criminals.
"One man's murder is another man's warranty issue."
This is a great line.
You can do the same thing with a plastic bag, a hose, and a can of nitrogen gas.
Did the Sarco device have a button to push if you changed your mind?
What a narcissistic era! After most European countries banned the death penalty long ago for cruelty and inhumanity...we get luxe suicide machines. What's wrong with a cheap plastic bag over the head? How about a head in a gas oven a la Sylvia Plath? What about a painless morphine OD? What about a simple handgun to the temple (with plastic sheeting to avoid making a mess for others)?
Luxe suicide...concentrated in all the 'enlightened' places worldwide?!? The political screw turns. Truth becomes falsehood. Left becomes right. Sanity becomes insanity. Life becomes nihilism.
Jaq said...
The older I get, the less problem I have with assisted suicide. An acquaintance of mine has brain cancer..
how do you feel about it for the clinically depressed?
how do you feel about it for the gender dysphoric?
how do you feel about it for people no longer paying social security taxes?
Not viable? An inconvenient truth? Abort, of course, of course. They have neighborhood clinics, chambers where human rites are performed to relieve "burdens". Special Peculiar Liberal Corporation(s)
The Doctor was obviously a nut case. And his previous suicide attempt failed but this one did. Personally, I can think of lots of cases where suicide is the preferred option. Large numbers of people die painful deaths. And I don't see anything wrong with the terminally ill speeding up the process.
I've often pondered what I would do if I was diagnosed with terminal cancer, fight it out to the end? Go through painful but ultimately useless Chemo treatments to extend life a few months? Or just end it, since the result can't be changed.
Final point - its absurd we have a "Suicide machine" that causes quick and painless death, yet we somehow cant' execute Killers on death row without it being "Cruel and Unusual" punishment.
The only reason for a suicide machine, is the person involved may not be able to physically leave this world in a painless manner. After all, if you're in a wheel chair and enfeebled, your options are limited.
Mr. Willet didn't seem to understand that the law in Europe operates in a different manner. One can be thrown in jail for years for "denying the Holocaust" or committing some other minor infraction. The Euros don't believe in "Freedom of speech" or "The individuals right to choose". They believe in the state enforcing its beliefs and values on its citizens.
I had a close family member die about a year ago of Parkinsonism and old age. He had many dark thoughts about his decline and had led a remarkable life - a life of the mind, a huge intellect, and a career marked by big achievements, recognized by governments. It got hard for him, toward the end. Anyway, he made a remark once about death, and I responded that I had read an account of people that had survived suicide - bridge jumpers and so forth, people that make the momentous and (they thought) irrevocable decision and then took action. A significantly large percentage of them recount later that, as soon as they took the action that decided their fate, they felt a deep regret (as they plummeted or whatever) and wished they could take it back. I wish I could find that account now, because it represented a remarkable acid test of a very specific and controlled group of people.
All of the suicide machines should have that 'Stop' button. The people that really want to go, won't be pushing it.
"Welcome to the monkeyhouse"!
John Henry
I'm always told my my Betters that lethal injection is cruel and barbaric. But I've sat with more dogs than I want to remember through the final act and none ever showed anything but quiet peace as they took their last breaths.
I am not an enthusiast of it, but I do understand that there are some circumstances where it doesn’t seem sinful to me, but of course there is the camel’s nose argument, and it is not nothing.
The Wall (La Faille) season 1 released in 2019, a French Canadian tv crime drama is following the investigation of a serial killer who employs a similar method to kill his victims. That was creepy. And this is creepy. The guy was a delicate flower and couldn't take the experience of pretrial detention but was ok watching people to suffocate in plastic bags. Psychopathy is on the rise. I blame autism.
We all are going to die so what is the rush? Too many incentives to go down the road of life unworthy of life. Life has been coarsened enough as it is, no good can come from going further down this path.
Planned Patienthood, and other models of DEIversity following progressive principles perchance prosecuted with liberal license.
Did the Sarco device have a button to push if you changed your mind?
Yes, but it doesn't do anything. It's there so people watching surreptitiously at an online betting site can wager. That's where the real money is for the company.
"I wish I could find that account now, because it represented a remarkable acid test of a very specific and controlled group of people."
Aggie, I saved that article. It was in the New Yorker by Tad Friend, called "Jumpers: The fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge."
Here's a paragraph from it: Survivors often regret their decision in midair, if not before. Ken Baldwin and Kevin Hines both say they hurdled over the railing, afraid that if they stood on the chord they might lose their courage. Baldwin was twenty-eight and severely depressed on the August day in 1985 when he told his wife not to expect him home till late. “I wanted to disappear,” he said. “So the Golden Gate was the spot. I’d heard that the water just sweeps you under.” On the bridge, Baldwin counted to ten and stayed frozen. He counted to ten again, then vaulted over. “I still see my hands coming off the railing,” he said. As he crossed the chord in flight, Baldwin recalls, “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped.”
@stunned: "Psychopathy is on the rise. I blame autism."
Humans have had a bloody history throughout history. See the creepy torture and cannibalism of Europe circa 7,500 years ago. I blame movies and TV (simple propagandistic imagery) followed by social media shortening attention spans. This also follows from WW1 and WW2 killing off a large percentage of psychos and zealots; many were born during peacetime and they have now reemerged like cicadas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herxheim_(archaeological_site)
https://www.academia.edu/42674795/The_Herxheim_ritual_enclosure_a_synthesis_of_results_and_interpretative_approaches
I still blame autism. Callous-unemotional traits, lack of empathy, remorse, guilt and shame and limited emotional expression, shallow or deficient affect and so on lead to a lack of concern for well-being of others. These people will seek to entertain themselves watching cruel movies and tv. When they watch the cruelty on the screen you can notice a creepy smile of satisfaction on their faces. You would not pay me enough money to watch any of this stuff. Cruel people enjoy watching cruel movies, they (the movies) should be outlawed (together with pornography), because this activity kills the last two cells existing in their prefrontal cortex where the feeling of empathy originates.
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