SAVES is not affiliated with Exit International / Dr Philip Nitschke and opposes the public availability of a 'peaceful pill'.

This article is based on 'What Really happened in Seattle', published 14 Nov 1999 by the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organisation, USA.

While parliaments fail to provide appropriate legislation for medically supervised voluntary euthanasia, there will continue to be a growing pressure for effective alternatives. Apparatus recently developed in North America has been designed to assist hopelessly ill people end their suffering by legal and peaceful means - either by deprivation of oxygen or by inhaling inert gases. No drugs or medications are used and the equipment is simple and non-medical. It is a most extraordinary development in the voluntary euthanasia debate and could have a significant effect on its outcome.

These new ways of self-deliverance were revealed at a conference held in Seattle, Washington on November 13 and 14, 1999. The conference was convened by the Self-Deliverance New Technology Group (NuTech), which includes members of right-to-die organisations and health scientists in the USA, Canada, Australia, France and Germany. The latest equipment for self-deliverance was demonstrated by inventors, and analysed for practicality by 28 experts including three physicians. The Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organisation of Oregon has provided much of the financial support.

The conference examined non-medical, non-criminal choices in dying, but was not attended by groups (such as SAVES) whose role is to secure legislative reform. However the Hemlock Society sent five officers to the conference. Research has been accelerated by the introduction of the Pain Relief Promotion Act in the US Congress. This act aims to prohibit the use of government controlled substances in legal physician assisted suicide.

As the clearly articulated wishes of electorate continue to be ignored there is now an increasing demand for 'underground' tactics and methods, with 'De Breather' equipment attracting the most attention. The basic concepts of this equipment have been developed from deep sea and scuba diving experience. Death by deprivation of oxygen occurs within four to ten minutes, depending on the person's lung capacity, and their fitness or frailty. Observers of the ten cases in which the De Breather was used report that death was quick and painless. Other even simpler methods of ending one's own life quickly and painlessly by inert gases have also been developed by the NuTech team. Legally these techniques are treated as suicide, and no drugs either controlled, banned, prescription or non-prescription, are involved.

Nobody at the Seattle conference was giving up the fight for democratic law reform for justifiable voluntary euthanasia. Fuelling the self-help dynamism is the belief that there must be a humane response for those who will continue to suffer while awaiting legal reforms. Therefore medical scientists and pharmaceutical experts around the world continue research into lethal substances which are not controlled by law - the so called 'suicide pill'.

We can expect heightened interest in the De Breather and other inert gas ways of gaining release from pointless suffering. The stimulus for such research is the ongoing failure to legislate for the needs of the hopelessly ill.