Assisted suicide activists from around the world are growing increasingly impatient in their attempts to transform the crimes of euthanasia and assisted suicide into medical treatment. 

As part of a concerted effort to push the envelope, a meeting was held in Seattle, Washington on Saturday, November 13, 1999.  Some members of the press were invited to observe portions of the closed meeting where masks, plastic bags and other gadgets were demonstrated as new, effective ways to assist suicides without using controlled substances.  Some  accounts of the confab have appeared in newspapers.

However, the most extensive  report on the meeting was written by one of its organizers, Derek Humphry.  Humphry, a co-founder of the Hemlock Society, has acknowledged assisting in suicides of family members and allegedly has provided assistance to others as well.   His "how-to" book, Final Exit, has been found with the bodies of depressed individuals.   

The following is Humphry's account of the November 13, 1999 meeting which was held in Seattle, Washington:

NEW 'DEBREATHER & INERT GAS TECHNIQUES

    Apparatus recently developed in North America aims to allow terminally ill persons painlessly and legally to end their suffering either by deprivation of oxygen or inhaling inert gases. No drugs or medications are used, and the apparatus is simple and non-medical. It promises to be the most extraordinary development in the assisted suicide international controversy.

    One system is called a 'DeBreather,' the basic concepts of which has been developed from deep-sea and scuba diving experience. With the extreme difficulty today in obtaining barbiturate or narcotic drugs legally for self-deliverance or even physician-assisted suicide, the De-Breather and other new techniques for suicide could offer a further avenue of release from unbearable suffering.

    The new ways of ending one's life were revealed at a remarkable conference in Seattle, Washington, November 13-14, held by the Self Deliverance New Technology Group (NuTech) comprising ad hoc of right-to-die organizations in the USA, Canada, Australia, France and Germany. The latest equipment for self-deliverance were demonstrated by its various inventors, and analyzed for practicality by 28 experts, including three physicians. Journalists from the USA and Australia were allowed to attend part of the conference.

    The theme of the conference -- finding non-medical, non-criminal ways of choice in dying -- did not please some right-to-die groups, notably Compassion in Dying, which wants regulated, medical only physician-assisted suicide. By contrast, the Hemlock Society sent five top officers to the conference.

    For decades, believers in voluntary euthanasia have talked about devices for ending a painful life with inert gases or diving equipment, but the introduction of the Hyde-Nickles Bill this year in the US Congress has accelerated such research because the Bill is intended to prohibit the use of barbiturates (a government controlled substance) for use with physician-assisted suicide. Drugs other than barbiturates are virtually useless for assisted suicide. Throughout the Western world, governments have tightened restrictions on the sale of any drug containing narcotics

    Famous helpers of terminally ill persons have been chased out of society in America: Dr. Jack Kevorkian is serving a ten-year prison term for second degree murder, while Dr. George Redding (sic) has gone into exile to avoid a charge of murder. Both doctors performed voluntary euthanasia in what reasonable people would consider justifiable, compassionate circumstances. Many doctors are reluctant to help suffering terminal patients to die because of the increasingly threatening backlash from the law. Law reform for assisted dying has been rebuffed by the parliaments and courts in Britain, Canada, and Australia.

    The Self Deliverance New Technology Group (NuTech) has been meeting throughout l999 debating and testing alternative means of ending an unbearable life quickly, painlessly and with dignity. The resistance by law makers all over the West to legalizing physician-assisted suicide is forcing people to use 'underground' tactics and methods. Too many dying people are appealing for a hastened death with dignity that it is cruel to stand by and ignore them.

    The DeBreather equipment, which has been used in at least ten cases of assisted suicide so far in the USA, has attracted the most attention.

    The average person in a stationary position consumes between .25 and .5 liters of oxygen each minute. Deprive a person of this element for 4-5 minutes and they die from hypoxia - oxygen starvation of the body. (Oxygen-- Co2-- is a colorless, tasteless, gaseous chemical element that occurs freely in the atmosphere. One fifth of our atmosphere is oxygen.)

    The DeBreather has a rubber facemask- the sort used by dentists and anesthetists-- fitting over the nose and mouth but not the eyes. It is held in place by two rubber straps leading to the back of the head. -- similar to a painter's mask or filter mask.

Removes oxygen

    [Description of type of tubing] leads from the facemask to a clear plastic canister. This is filled with chemicals resembling popcorn. [Humphry goes on to name the chemicals]  This chemical is the cleanser, or 'scrubber,' of the oxygen from the person's breath.

    From the scrubbing canister the depleted air travels on to a vinyl bag resembling a small water carrier. This bag collects the air and recycles it to the facemask for rebreathing - but this air is deadly because it contains no oxygen

    The person is taking breaths apparently normally, but without oxygen will die in a matter of minutes. How long it takes to die might vary from 4 minutes to 10 or so depending on the person's lung capacity and their fitness and frailty,

    A meter can be linked to the facemask if the person wishes to monitor the amount of oxygen they are receiving while the equipment operates. For others to know the point of death, a heart-rate monitor can be attached to a chest strap or finger monitor. But this extra equipment is optional.

    Observers of the ten cases in which the DeBreather was used report that death was quick and painless. In contrast to Dr. Jack Kevorkian's famous 'suicide machine,' which used drug substances controlled by law, provided by him but released into the body by a patient-activated switch, no drugs of any sort are used in the DeBreather. The patient dies from their own breath coming back without oxygen.

    This surprising new way of rational suicide has been developed in Victoria, BC, by former journalist John Hofsess, aided by engineers with experience in deep sea diving systems, physicians and anesthesiologists. Other people in the right to die movement in North America have sat in on the development as advisors. In l991 John Hofsess founded the Society for the Right to Die, Canada. Financial backing for much of NuTech's work has come from the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization of Oregon, which also sponsored the Seattle conference.

Using inert gases

    Other, even simpler methods of ending one's own life quickly and painlessly have also been developed by the NuTech team members.

    Committing suicide by using a plastic bag secured around the neck has been well known since it was described in the book "Final Exit" first issued in l991. Persons who are unable to get the cooperation of a physician, or have no access to barbiturate drugs, yet wish to die to escape further suffering, commonly use this plastic bag technique. But it takes at least thirty minutes before death is achieved through deprivation of oxygen.

    This latest technique reduces the time to about five minutes by use of [here Humphry names the easily obtained inert gases].

    [Name of substance] - an inert gas, which is neither explosive nor flammable and is odorless and easy to breathe -- can be acquired in [locations for purchase] in lightweight, compressed gas cylinders, which come included in carry-away [names type of kit] kits for around $20.

    A [description and length of tubing] tubing bought from a hardware store is needed to connect the canister up to a person who has a plastic bag loosely over their head. When the bag is tightened with a rubber band, or other fastener, around the person's neck, with the pipe leading inside, the person by hand turns on the gas tank, which start full for maximum effect. The bag inflates with deadly gas and the person is quickly overcome.

    As with those forms of suicide using gases, if the person is interrupted just before the point of death, and survives, then brain damage and paralysis is likely. This does not happen with barbiturates.

    These techniques -- in legal terms - are straightforward suicide, which is not a felony. There need be no helper, which sometimes can be criminal. The presence of others in the room giving moral support is not felonious provided they do not physically assist. No drugs -- controlled, banned, prescription or non-prescription -- are involved.

    The inert gas suicide technique has an advantage over the DeBreather in being simpler, cheaper, and easier to use. Plus, the gas can be administered either by injecting it into a plastic bag loosely over the patient's head, or via a cheap plastic medical mask which covers only the nose and mouth. The drawback of the De-Breather is that it has to be carefully manufactured and also requires some detailed instructions in its use.

    Rob Neils, of the Dying Well Network in Washington State, told the conference how he had on several occasions used small canisters of [name of substance] to achieve what he called 'a deathing' of a terminally ill person within five minutes. The Reverend George Exoo, of the Compassionate Chaplaincy in Pittsburgh, PA, said that the inert gas method on the occasion he had used it produced the same rapid, peaceful death.

    Anesthesiologists at the conference said that this technique was preferable with a cheap flow meter attached, but other practitioners of 'deathing' argued that the gas was so fast and deadly that no extra equipment was needed.

    A video demonstrating the [name of substance] technique and recently put on the open market is selling rapidly. It can be purchased from [locations for purchase].

Reform blocked

    Why this current emphasis on self-deliverance by dying patients? Law reform in this controversial field is expected to take many more years, despite 75 percent of public opinion in most Western countries favoring change. Political and religious institutions have thrown their traditional power against permitting choice in dying. Triggering the backlash has been the passing of euthanasia laws in the Northern Territory in Australia and in Oregon, USA.

    Nobody at the remarkable Seattle conference was giving up on the fight for democratic law reform on justifiable euthanasia. Fueling the 'self-help' dynamism is a feeling that in the meantime there must be a humane response to those suffering during the intervening years.

    Meanwhile, medical scientists and pharmaceutical experts around the world are determinedly searching for a drug, or combination of drugs, which are lethal but are not drug substances controlled by law. So far the hunt for the so-called 'magic pill' for quick and painless death has been fruitless - hence the heightened interest in the DeBreather and the inert gas ways of gaining release from terminal suffering.

    Among those at the Seattle conference was Dr.Philip Nitschke who helped four people to die when voluntary euthanasia was briefly legal in the Northern Territory of Australia. The Federal Parliament killed the Northern Territory law after eight months. Now Dr.Nitschke holds 'euthanasia clinics' throughout the country giving advice to dying people but not directly helping them end their lives.

    Another famous practitioner of lawful euthanasia lending his vast experience to the conference was Professor Pieter Admiraal, MD, from the Netherlands.

    Organizations in attendance at the conference were: Last Rights Publications (Canada), Hemlock Society USA, ERGO!, Compassionate Chaplaincy [Pittsburgh, PA], Dying Well Network [Spokane, Washington], Right to Die Society of Ottawa, DGHS, (Germany), the Euthanasia Research Foundation(Australia), plus many experts from different health sciences.

Source:
D. Humphry's right-to-die list serve. The message explicitly stated that it was not covered by copyright. It was forwarded to the IAETF by a subscriber to the mailing list who is concerned about the promotion of such "how-to" methods to vulnerable people. 

More information on the Seattle meeting is available at:
Conference displays new devices in search for a way to die   Seattle Times, Nov. 15, 1999

For more information on the federal legislation referred to as the Hyde-Nickles Bill in Humphry's account, see:   
Pain Relief Promotion Act