Two women carried out a joint suicide pact in the UK, using dangerous chemicals. From the story:
The pair, believed to be in their 20s, were found in a flat in Putney, south west London. The windows had been taped up and police believe toxic vapours were released which they inhaled. Detectives are investigating whether the couple had met in a online suicide forum, or if they were already known to each other, and whether they found the ingredients for the lethal substance on the internet...Hundreds of neighbours were evacuated from the Putney area as specialist fire crews were scrambled to the scene.
All of these amateur suicide enablers on the Internet would be put out of business if we would only let compassionate doctors like Philip Nitschke and Jack Kevorkian do the lethal deeds for them in side-by-side beds. (Actually, Kevorkian did a double assisted suicide once. Sheri Miller had MS, while Marjorie Wantz complained of pelvic pain, but her autopsy showed she wasn’t ill. Ludwig Minelli of Dignitas in Switzerland has also committed double assisted suicide.) After all, being made dead is the newest fundamental right. Imagine the peace of mind and increase in public safety if suicidal people knew they wouldn’t have to kill themselves without “professional” assistance.
Sarcasm aside, that is what we are becoming. The story mentions a similar joint suicide a week earlier.
Earlier this month, Miss Lee had formed a suicide pact with Mr Lumb, a lorry driver from Yorkshire who she found on the internet. Using the name Heaven’s Little Girl, she wrote on a suicide forum page: “I’m desperately seeking a pact in the UK. I’m 34, female, and live in the Essex area.” Mr Lumb, with the username Endthis, responded.
I think the assisted suicide movement—and all the sympathetic press it generates—adds to the impetus for such tragedies. Suicide is in the air.
