• Introduction • Essential Life Systems • Hypoxia - A Peaceful, Reliable Death? • Making Hypoxia ‘Happy’ • The Cardiac Switch • Summary of Peaceful Pill eHandbook Methods
Introduction
The Peaceful Pill eHandbook seeks to provide rational adults with the information required for a peaceful, reliable and elective death. To do this it is important to understand what makes a death ‘peaceful’, and what is meant by ‘reliable’. A survey of Exit International members carried out in 2006 identified these two characteristics as essential. Respondents stated that the ideal death would be one that occurs while the person is asleep. The goal would be a process that would rapidly, and without discomfort or pain, lead to loss of consciousness and death.
To die peacefully and reliably is harder than it sounds. For example, actions we might take to end our life may well be peaceful but they might also be unreliable (eg. taking an overdose of Valium). Or, the methods may be reliable, but not at all peaceful (eg. jumping from a tall building).