How dangerous is it to share knowledge about a suicide powder?

It is clear that De Jong wants the best for her members en that she just wants to help people. If people claim that this powder reassures them and it gives them new energy to live, then, of course, I’m happy for them. Nevertheless, I don’t think that it would be a good idea to legalize distributing such powders or knowledge about it.

But in order to see why, we need to take a look at society as a whole and not to individuals who feel better because of it. Let’s take a good look at her arguments and go beyond the feelings of individuals, which is the perspective from which De Jong argues, but think of what this would do to society as a whole.

• Reassurance

  De Jong makes clear that several people are worried about the future. I think that this means that they are worried about becoming demented and having to suffer without being able to do something about that. For that reason, people sometimes say that they want to take such a powder before that time.

  This fear is understandable, but I think that it is better to see whether this fear can be taken away in another way. In order to do that we should talk more about that fear instead of ways to die. What do people really fear and are these fears justified? Should things in society change so that this fear can be taken away, for example in the care for elderly?

  There are several reasons why I think that it is important to see whether there are alternative ways to reassure people about the future. First of all, if there are alternative ways then more people can become older happily. Second of all, De Jong thinks that this powder cannot be misused, but I think that she thinks to simplistic about misuse of this powder.

  She claims that they can make sure that this powder won’t be misused, but people who really want to murder someone will find a way to by-pass the colours, bubbles, or sounds. Moreover, we should also be aware of the fact that there are more reasons for people use this powder for other aims that it is meant for, what are also types of misuse.

  Like Ali B. already said, there is a change that people who are depressed take it, even though they should get psychological help. Moreover, suppose that some people want to get their inheritance, but their parent just doesn’t die. Then they can also seduce this parent to take the powder with all kinds of excuses, or decide to commit murder with it any way. Of the parent has this powder at his or home already, this is made a lot easier.

• Freedom

  The other mentioned argument was freedom. We have freedom to control our own lives, so why should we not have the ability to control our own deaths?

  But is argument is false, for there are many limitations in our lives. If I would like to live in a villa, then I should have the money to do so, or else it won’t happen. I also cannot just walk into a company and demand to work there from now on; they should first hire me. Moreover, we should all pay taxes.

  Next to these limitations, there are various laws that are created to protect us, but they also limit our freedom. For example, the law concerning euthanasia and the law against helping people to commit suicide are there to protect people. We may not like that at all times, but without these laws it could happen that people die who actually wanted to live.

  For example, two years ago a woman was put to death by a physician who had written down that she wanted to die before going to a nursing home, but she also wrote down that she wanted to decide about this again before they would actually kill her. Nevertheless, the physician killed her without asking her to conform whether she wanted to die. Because of the law concerning euthanasia, a judge could say that this is not correct and other people can be protected against such carelessness in the future.

What strikes me most in this discussion is that the idea that each human being is precious and that it is therefore important to consider for each person whether he or she can live on with some help, is fully overshadowed by the fear for the future and the desire for more freedom. This is all about the fact that the medical science gets better and better, and because of that we get older, but at the same time, more people get weaker. We don’t want that to happen to us.

So that this discussion will continue is therefore logical. But I think that it shouldn’t only be about whether powders or pills that enables people to kill themselves can be distributed legally, but about how people can be helped to become old happily. Death should be the last resort and a physician should be involved, so that it is clear that there is no other way.