Who Knew? Assisted Suicide Can Take Up to 4 Days: Involves "Nausea, Vomiting" and More Doctors Warn

Claire Chretien : Jul 30, 2018
LifeSiteNews.com

"A peaceful death is by no means guaranteed using current methods" of physician-assisted suicide. -Dr. Ronald W. Pies and Dr. Annette Hanson

(New York, NY)—[Lifesitenews.com] Assisted suicide is not a "quick, peaceful death without serious complications," two physicians wrote in MD Magazine, warning that it can take up to four days for a person to die after ingesting lethal drugs. (Photo: Creative Commons /Pixabay)

In an article published earlier this month, Dr. Ronald W. Pies and Dr. Annette Hanson dismantled 12 common myths about the euphemistically—labeled practice of "medical aid in dying"—doctors prescribing deadly drugs to patients so they can kill themselves.

Dr. Pies is a professor emeritus of psychiatry and lecturer on bioethics at State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. Dr. Hanson is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland and at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is also the director of the University of Maryland forensic fellowship program.

"A peaceful death is by no means guaranteed using current methods" of physician-assisted suicide (PAS or PAD, "physician-assisted dying"), they wrote, pointing to a New England Journal of Medicine article that warned, "Physicians who support PAD need to consider how to address the potential for adverse outcomes, including longer time to death than expected (up to 24 hours or more), awakening from unconsciousness, nausea, vomiting, and gasping."

Between 1998 and 2005, Pies and Hanson wrote, 27 out of 994 PAS cases "involved difficulty ingesting or regurgitating the drugs, and there were 6 known instances in which patients regained consciousness after ingesting the drugs."

"However, it is difficult to know the actual rate of drug-induced complications, because in the majority (54%) of cases between 1998 and 2015, no health care professional was present to attend and observe the patient's death," they explained. Lack of a physician at the actual suicide also means "the possibility of abuse—eg, by coercive family members—cannot be adequately assessed."

"Many patients who request assisted suicide are clinically depressed and could be successfully treated, once properly diagnosed," the physicians explained, noting, "between 2008 and 2014, more than 200 psychiatric patients were euthanized by their own request in the Netherlands"...

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