Title of the article: In Tijuana, a Market for Death in a Bottle
Source: The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/world/americas/21tijuana.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=7a39725c70e25908&ex=1216958400
Date of Publication: July 21, 2008
Author: MARC LACEY.
Garcia Fernandez, Gabriela.
It would be rather difficult to believe that you can find advices of how to commit suicide in a book, but it is true. “The Peaceful Pill Handbook” by Phillip Nitschke, is a book that lays out
methods to end one’s life. Its author is the founder of Exit International, an Australian group that helps people who want to end their lives. It is banned in Australia and in New Zeeland. Anyway, its advices have already “helped” many people to committe suicide.
One of the book’s most popular advices is to buy Mexican Pentobarbital, a barbiturate commonly known as Nembutal. The drug, literally takes a person’s breath away and it can kill by putting people to sleep. It is tightly regulated in most countries but in Mexico, the drug is “readily available” says P. Nietschke in his book.
It is no surprising how easy is to buy the drug in Mexico, if we take into account that it is a country which has a huge problem of contraband. It is presicely in Tijuana pets' shops where Nembutal can be bought in small bottles of its concentrated liquid form. Once widely available as a sleep aid, this drug is now used mostly to anesthetize animals for surgery and to euthanize them.
Considered as “the most trouble-free and painless form of suicide” by P.Nitschke, Nembutal goes in brand names like Sedal-Vet, Sedalphorte and Barbithal. People who buy the drug are known as “death tourists”. They visit the veterinary pharmacies in Tijuana, Mexico, paying as little as 30 dollars for a dose. Some of them show the shops’ owners one of the many photos of bottles of Nembutal provided in Mr. Nitschke’s book. And although pet shops owners acknowledge that foreigners regularly inquire about the drug, they assumed “the customers were using it to end the lives of their animals”.
This situation changed after an article published by “El Norte”, a regional newspaper, detailed how easy was to buy pentobarbital and how foreigners intended to use it. Consequently, local authorities are seeking to clamp down on unauthorized purchases and shops are now supposed to sell the drug only to licensed veterinarians who present a prescription.
A second step to solve this problem, should be, in my opinion to reconsider Mr. Nitschke’s book as a threat to people willing to die. The book not only offers advices of the best ways to commit suicide but it also tells people where to buy the drugs to do it. This is totally inmoral and it may also be considered a crime, taking into that what Mr. Nitschke is doing is a form of “assisted suicide”, which is illegal in many countries.
Source: The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/world/americas/21tijuana.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5087&em&en=7a39725c70e25908&ex=1216958400
Date of Publication: July 21, 2008
Author: MARC LACEY.
Garcia Fernandez, Gabriela.
It would be rather difficult to believe that you can find advices of how to commit suicide in a book, but it is true. “The Peaceful Pill Handbook” by Phillip Nitschke, is a book that lays out
methods to end one’s life. Its author is the founder of Exit International, an Australian group that helps people who want to end their lives. It is banned in Australia and in New Zeeland. Anyway, its advices have already “helped” many people to committe suicide.One of the book’s most popular advices is to buy Mexican Pentobarbital, a barbiturate commonly known as Nembutal. The drug, literally takes a person’s breath away and it can kill by putting people to sleep. It is tightly regulated in most countries but in Mexico, the drug is “readily available” says P. Nietschke in his book.
It is no surprising how easy is to buy the drug in Mexico, if we take into account that it is a country which has a huge problem of contraband. It is presicely in Tijuana pets' shops where Nembutal can be bought in small bottles of its concentrated liquid form. Once widely available as a sleep aid, this drug is now used mostly to anesthetize animals for surgery and to euthanize them.
Considered as “the most trouble-free and painless form of suicide” by P.Nitschke, Nembutal goes in brand names like Sedal-Vet, Sedalphorte and Barbithal. People who buy the drug are known as “death tourists”. They visit the veterinary pharmacies in Tijuana, Mexico, paying as little as 30 dollars for a dose. Some of them show the shops’ owners one of the many photos of bottles of Nembutal provided in Mr. Nitschke’s book. And although pet shops owners acknowledge that foreigners regularly inquire about the drug, they assumed “the customers were using it to end the lives of their animals”.
This situation changed after an article published by “El Norte”, a regional newspaper, detailed how easy was to buy pentobarbital and how foreigners intended to use it. Consequently, local authorities are seeking to clamp down on unauthorized purchases and shops are now supposed to sell the drug only to licensed veterinarians who present a prescription.
A second step to solve this problem, should be, in my opinion to reconsider Mr. Nitschke’s book as a threat to people willing to die. The book not only offers advices of the best ways to commit suicide but it also tells people where to buy the drugs to do it. This is totally inmoral and it may also be considered a crime, taking into that what Mr. Nitschke is doing is a form of “assisted suicide”, which is illegal in many countries.
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