Grandma Selling Suicide Kit on the Web - Neatorama

After watching her husband die a slow, painful death from colon cancer, a 91-year-old grandma named "Charlotte" is selling suicide kit on the Internet:

Charlotte makes the kits -- which cost buyers $60 -- by taking large plastic bags and sewing soft elastic bands around the opening. There is a slot in the bag for a plastic tube carrying helium gas to be inserted. Helium -- when inhaled in its pure form -- is deadly. Kit users are responsible for securing their own helium gas.
"If heaven is so wonderful, you know you'd naturally want to go there, wouldn't you?" said Charlotte.
Charlotte's story came to light because of the recent death of 29-year-old Nick Klonoski.
The Oregon man ordered one of Charlotte's kits and took his life in December 2010. Since then, his family has spoken out against Charlotte's business and now an Oregon lawmaker has put forward a bill to make selling the kits a felony in the state.
Charlotte, however, said caring for people in great pain is what motivates her to do what she does.

Link - Thanks Tiffany!

Charlotte's business is legal in California, but people are questioning the ethics. What do you think? Compassionate grandma or shades of Dr. Kevorkian?

I feel that nobody who wouldn't kill themselves would order one of these.

However, if she was that compassionate wouldn't she be giving them away?

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Dr. Kevorkian was deeply compassionate, you dinks.

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The government can't balance it's own budget yet it thinks it has the knowledge, the experience, and the wisdom, and the legal right to tell people they can't control their own lives (including when it should be terminated).

WTF?????

Maybe the government should outlaw gravity next.

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I think one has the right to take one's OWN life. It's one's choice. The government shouldn't have a saying in it, for after all, that means one less soul. Aren't they always complaining about over population?

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there's nothing in her kit that can't be purchased in a Walmart, it could just as easily be marketed as an auto-erotic asphyxiation device... Her product doesn't kill anyone, unless they go to the length of buying the helium from someone else. Are they going after razor blade manufacturers now? Tall building owners? Car companies for carbon monoxide?

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Yeah, what Kevin said. Jack Kevorkian walked eyes open into federal jail for eight years as part of a lifelong quest to reduce human suffering, and you blithely use his name as if it were Mengele?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=kervorkian

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Most if not all people who have at some point the impulse to want to kill themselves can actually be helped.

"Suicide is not chosen; it happens when pain exceeds resources for coping with pain."

http://www.metanoia.org/suicide/

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if someone is going to kill themselves they'll ind a way to do it. this is just a more humane way to go than blowing your brains out. The government can't control people in that way and neither can the person's family.

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Kevorkian, compassionate? You've actually read Kevorkian's history, haven't you? The requests to experiment on prisoners that are on death row, and harvest their organs? His attempts to use cadaver blood on living patients? His use of cadaver blood for painting? Not to mention the fact that the people he killed were not in physical pain, they were psycologically depressed and needed councilling, not murder.

Kevorkian has the profile of a serial killer. And a con man, too, since he has convinced so many people that his obsession with death is 'compassion.'

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The most critical article I can find outside of the fundamentalist echo chamber is 'Suicide Machine' by the Detroit Free Press. [http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Afreep.com+suicide.machine]

It considers Kevorkian far too quick to accept people's request to die at face value. It does not paint him as a corpse obsessed sociopath with dreams of vivisection. What are your sources?

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The problem is, the people ordering these kits may be experiencing major depression or another treatable mental illness. Even chronic pain is treatable in most cases and many people with chronic pain benefit from psychological intervention. People who kill themselves due to these things are acting on impulses fueled by depressed or distressed cognitions. A part of them is choosing to die, but what these people usually want - REALLY want - is MORE life not less. We ALL might think about killing ourselves when things get too tough but people who don't have the coping skills or social resources actually go through with it. They can be helped in the overwhelming majority of cases. Helping people to commit suicide is not the answer.

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Sixty bucks for plastic bag?
She's gunna make a killing.

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...helium? We're currently experiencing a shortage of helium! WTF grandma?!

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Use a gun its the american way.

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http://www.whokilledbambi.co.uk/2011/01/electric-bath-duck/

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We put to sleep dogs who have crippling arthritis, but we force cancer patients without no hope of recovery to suffer for months in a hospital bed, living in interminable pain.

There are many aspects to our society that are still ass-backwards.

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@ clinton robert labombard

-she owns stock.

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lol @ all the drama

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There's a difference between people with depression, who can be helped, and someone with a terminal illness, who can't. It's cruel to force people to live in pain and misery. Also I wonder if the Oregon man is the man on Reddit who posted he was going to end his life after a long illness... I think I remember him saying he was from Oregon...

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She made $100k last year. That's a lot of compassion. [Senses business opportunity.]

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"Helium -- when inhaled in its pure form -- is deadly."
Ahhhhh,NO.... Helium is inert.
But if all you have to breathe is helium you'll die of oxygen deprivation tho....

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@TimO
'Good point!
In fact everything is deadly "in it's pure form" IF it deprives one of oxygen.

Although, I'm sure the helium would also make one a bit lightheaded.

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600 000 dollars elle a gagnées la mémé

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Does it have to be helium? I'd hate to die with a squeaky voice.

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The day doctors are allowed to kill people is the day anyone should be allowed to practice medicine.

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"Although, I'm sure the helium would also make one a bit lightheaded."

And any last words will sound hilarious.

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The only problem with this is the press is now publicizing an easy, painless way to kill yourself. Neatorama included. THAT is irresponsible.

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