People who end their lives with the suicide powder Drug X do not die peacefully. This is evident from conversations that news hour had with several experts.
The chemical has been provided by members of the Last Will Cooperative to hundreds of people with a death wish. “It is often a severe death struggle with a lot of cramping and pain with injuries and vomiting,” says psychotherapist Ad Kerkhof, who guides suicidal patients and their relatives.
At the National Poisons Information Center (NVIC), affiliated with UMC Utrecht, they have seen an increase in the number of reports since 2018 of doctors who inquire because they find patients who want to take their own life with the drug. According to Antoinette van Riel of the NVIC, there were 53 reports of a suicide attempt with a chemical agent in recent years. In 22 cases it concerned Agent X, 18 cases were fatal. And that is the tip of the iceberg “because doctors and care providers no longer call us because they know the symptoms”.
In 2017, the Last Will Cooperative made in news hour known to point out an over-the-counter chemical to people who feel their life is complete. It concerns people with what they call ‘an autonomous death wish’. The cooperative fights for the right to self-determination and believes that everyone has the right to determine their own end of life. According to them, the euthanasia law in the Netherlands is not sufficient and it is not good for a doctor to participate in the decision-making process.
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Three members of the Last Will Cooperative may have to answer to court for providing this drug. The chairman of the cooperative Jos van Wijkwas heard by the police. The OM Brabant reports today news hour not to rule out more arrests.
The board of the cooperative says that they are distancing themselves from the way in which the three members have distributed the drug and that people have died for whom the drug was not intended.
“We are not concerned with people with a death wish. The vast majority of our members want to have a reassurance remedy at home, so that in the future they can dispose of their own end of life when they are ready. These are in the first place the Dutch who would like to be in control of the end of life themselves. They want to have a last will tool available. Take Huib Drion as an example. He argued for this 30 years ago,” says Petra de Jong of Coöperatie Laatste Wil.
‘No more conversation about death wish’
Not only the NIVC receives reports about the drug. At the suicide helpline 113 they also receive daily questions from people who want to take the drug or who want to order it. There they are concerned about another aspect of the free provision of the drug. “There has been a lot of calling and chatting about it since 2018. What worries me is that people no longer discuss their death wish if they already have the drug at home. It is important that it is made as difficult as possible to commit suicide. not too easy,” said Maryke Wolters of 113 Suicide Prevention.
One of the people who chose to take this drug was Marjolein. When Yvonne, the mother of 28-year-old Marjolein is called by the hospital, it is already too late. Her daughter’s life can no longer be saved: “There she was lying on all kinds of hoses and monitors and she was sweating profusely. She had a tube in her throat to be resuscitated and yet it seemed like she was crying. She was sobbing all the time. “That didn’t look peaceful. You don’t want that on your retina, that your child is lying there like this.”
Yvonne tells Nieuwsuur that her daughter actually did not want to die:
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Mother talks about her daughter who died of Middel X
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Marjolein was a member of the Last Will Cooperative and the Public Prosecution Service suspects that a member of the cooperative gave her the means with which she killed herself. But Marjolein immediately regrets taking it and calls 112. “Marjolein told the doctor: am I going to die now? I don’t want to die,” says her mother.
Yvonne hopes that others will not make the same choice as her daughter. “If you think you’re going to come to an end with this, forget it. That’s not the case.”
‘Suicide is never a free choice’
Psychotherapist Ad Kerkhof finds it extremely worrying that suicide drugs are freely available. He treats people who want euthanasia because of untreatable psychological suffering and patients who are considering suicide. But also the relatives of people who killed themselves with powder. He also contributed to the guideline for the Dutch Psychiatric Association that helps people with untreatable psychological suffering with euthanasia and suicide.
“Suicide is never a free choice. People don’t want to die, they want a solution to their problems.” According to Kerkhof, the drug does not cause a peaceful death to the user. “It is often a severe agony with a lot of cramping and pain with injuries and vomiting. Traumatic for the bereaved.”
Sisco van Veen, psychiatrist in geriatric medicine at Amsterdam UMC, location VU, is concerned about the spread of the suicide drugs. Because even among the elderly, an autonomous, constant death wish is rather exceptional, is his statement. “Almost no one can make a well-considered decision on their own to take such a drug.”
read here an extensive response from Coöperatie Laatste Wil.
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