Barbiturates assisted suicide

One reason for Roche s success with Dalmane was that it did not share two undesirable features of the barbiturates, the then reigning class of sedatives REM suppression and suicidal potency. The barbiturates are CNS depressants that can induce unconsciousness, but because they have a very low margin of safety they can also shut down the respiratory control system of the brain stem. That is how they kill, and that is why they are still popular in Oregon and other places where individuals are free to elect a definitive end to unbearably unpleasant conscious awareness. Physician-assisted suicide is sometimes accomplished by turning off breathing, by pulling the plug internally as it were. 

A federal district court judge on April 17, 2002 rejected the United States Justice Department s attempt to overturn Oregon s physician-assisted suicide law. The Justice Department had claimed that the state law violated the federal Controlled Substances Act. Oregon was the first state to approve a law that allowed doctors to prescribe lethal dosages of medications like barbiturates to terminally ill patients. 

At the close of the twentieth century, the DEA reported that barbiturates represented about 20% of all depressant prescriptions in the United States. Uses ranged from epilepsy treatment to assisted suicide in Oregon. In 1997, Oregon voters approved the Death with Dignity Act, which allows doctors to prescribe lethal dosages of barbiturates to terminally ill people. 

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See also in sourсe #XX -- [ , ]

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