Dying a good death—what we need from drugs that are meant to end life

[rangerrebew]

Dying a good death—what we need from drugs that are meant to end life
October 20, 2017 by Betty Chaar And Sami Isaac, The Conversation

Generally speaking, health care is aimed at relieving pain and suffering. This is also the motivation behind euthanasia – the ending of one's own life, usually in the case of terminal illness characterised by excruciating pain.

There has been debate in Victoria about the drugs that should be used to end life if euthanasia is legalised. So which medications can we ensure would facilitate the best, medically-supervised death?

Medicine as poison

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2017-10-dying-good-deathwhat-drugs-meant.html

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The TL;DR for the article is that because of bans on medications in Australia, it's difficult to find ways to ease the pain for people dying.

Secobarbital isn't banned in the US...it's just impossible to get because it's not often prescribed in the US -- and the manufacturers have taken a political stance against lethal injection (similarly, sodium thiopental is in short supply).   So even legitimate patients can't get the meds they've been prescribed.