Means of Death

Death by lethal drugs may not be peaceful, painless or quick

The lethal drugs administered under ‘assisted dying’ schemes are often the same ones used to execute prisoners on death row in the USA.​

Professor Joel Zivot of Emory university has written that when assisted suicide deaths use the same form of lethal drugs given as part of American death penalty protocols people can die from drowning in their own secretions as fluid collects in the lungs (what doctors call a pulmonary oedema).

"Feeling like you're drowning in your own body - where's the dignity in that death?"

Sometimes the drugs do not work and the person does not die.

Sometimes the drugs cause distressing side effects before the person dies.

The bitter taste of the drug cocktails means people can experience difficulty swallowing drugs, vomiting, seizures and even regaining consciousness (after ingesting the drugs).

And sometimes it can take a long time for the person to die.

Nearly 7% of people take more than 6 hours.
In one Oregon case, it took 137 hours – more than 5½ days

The Denver Post described the 2017 assisted suicide death of a Colorado man diagnosed with cancer, which took over 9 hours, like this:​

“On the day of Kurt’s death, Susan [his wife] mixed the liquids prescribed as directed and Kurt began drinking the compound. ‘But with every sip,’ Susan says, ‘he’s choking and coughing, choking and coughing.’ It went on for nearly 20 minutes…
Although he never regained consciousness, the gasping, uneven breathing continued. Two hours passed. Then 4 hours. ‘At 4:15,’ Susan says, ‘I started to majorly panic’’.As she tried without success to reach a doctor, a couple more disturbing thoughts crossed her mind: She feared that Kurt, despite his unconsciousness, could hear everything — the calls, the desperation in her voice. And she wondered if his choking when he first took the medication meant that he had aspirated enough to delay its effect.
Around 7 pm, she asked the hospice to send a nurse. Shortly after the nurse arrived, a doctor called and suggested some additional measures. Soon after, Susan saw her husband sit up slightly and appear to retch three times. She ran to his bedside. Then he slid back into his pillows and stopped breathing.