I'm a big believer in the right to die.
If someone's dying of something terrible - ALS, cancer - and all that's between the person is and death is misery, loss of agency, and profound suffering (physical and existential), and they'd like to cut to the chase, I'm all for it.
When my husband was dying of something terrible - that would be cancer - we did a low-key look at whether Jim, as a Vermont native, would be eligible for a physician-assisted death in his home state, which is a right to die state.
Turned out he wasn't eligible, and I don't know whether we would have pursued the option even if he had been.
When Jim began home hospice, they delivered - among other drugs - a supply of morphine, which we never touched. Jim was adamant that he would never ask me to help him die by giving him an overdose. He didn't want me living with any guilt, and he most definitely didn't want me getting into any sort of legal entanglement.
As it turned out, Jim spent his last week or so in the hospital, in an ad hoc hospice arrangement that his wonderful doctors arranged for him. And his last 45 minutes on earth were spent in an official hospice facility. (The agreement with MGH was that Jim could stay there, as long as he was on a wait-list for a real hospice.) For that last week or so, Jim was given morphine as needed, but was never - except for a couple of weird moments - out of it.
Anyway, we didn't need physician-assisted death, but I'm all for it.
But that's for people who are dying of something terrible. Not for a 17 year-old kid who thinks he wants to end it all.
And a 17 year-old kid in Michigan was one of the 100 or so suicides linked to Kenneth Law, a Canadian chef (former) who was running some e-commerce sites selling lethal doses of sodium nitrite, a toxic salt. Law was also selling "suicide kits," and allegedly provided coaching to those who intended to take their own lives.
Law has been charged with aiding 14 suicides. Many more deaths in the UK are under review to see if Law should be charged there as well. (Officials in the US, New Zealand, Italy, and Ireland are also looking into connections between Law and suicides in their country.)
Overall, Law's businesses "shipped about 1,200 packages of toxic salt to people in 40 countries."
In Canada, where investigators said Mr. Law shipped 160 packages, he has been charged by multiple police agencies in Ontario with counseling or aiding suicide. The victims were between 16 and 36 years old. (Source: NY Times)
Law has yet to be arraigned. That's coming next week. But he is being held in jail. Law intends to plead not-guilty, his attorney asserting that nothing that Law has done rises to the level of criminality. (Canada does have assisted death. Physicians and NP's "are exempted from criminal charges of counseling or aiding suicide, which have a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison." Law is not a medical professional...)
The toxic salts that Law was selling have many other uses, most notably as a food preservative. But Law's website was apparently all about the suicide use case. And death-by-toxic-salt has becoming something of the "it" method, and is trending in Canada and elsewhere as a suicide means.
One of the American kids who died after consuming sodium nitrite from Law was Anthony Jones.
Tonia Jones, from the Detroit area, remembers her son Anthony as a "good kid" who loved sweets, devoured books and enjoyed anime. Since his death in February 2022, Tonia has tried to warn other parents to "watch for warning signs" of loved ones in distress.
After Anthony ingested a substance purchased online, he ran to his mother and screamed, "I want to live, I want to live," Tonia said. He was rushed to hospital, but it was too late.
A torn-up paper invoice was later found nearby, showing Anthony's address and a company name associated with Law. (Source: CBC)
Rushing to his mother screaming "I want to live..." How unimaginably awful for this mother, for this child.
The last thing an immature, impulsive child of 17 needs is some goon on the Internet telling him how to kill himself, and providing the means.
What kind of a ghoul thinks this is a good business?
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