In a 2001 interview, author and suicide activist, Philip Nitschke, insisted that even the suicides of the “troubled teen” should be facilitated. And according to a California lawsuit filed on September 29, Amazon.com, the online “Everything Store,” abets this horrific view when it reprints Nitschke’s popular “Peaceful Pill Book” and pairs it online with a recommended poisonous chemical — forming a “suicide kit.”
The chemical, a pure form of sodium nitrate, continues to be sold on Amazon.com and “is a dangerous poison that causes a painful, miserable and slow death” according to “Cecil B.” in her one-star product review. This view is shared by concerned families and regulators, who have warned that there is no household purpose for sodium nitrate to be sold online at this grade level other than for committing suicide.
Suicides have happened as a result, and two families are seeking to punish Amazon and prevent future teenage deaths with their recent legal challenge against Amazon and Loudwolf, Inc., a sodium nitrate manufacturer. They allege that despite knowing that the paired products were being sold to and used by teenagers to commit suicide, both companies put profits and callousness over vulnerable lives. The allegations include selling the dangerous chemicals without restriction, pairing the poison with the deadly guidebook online, and even removing one-star reviews by desperate parents attempting to warn others and Amazon of the dangers.
But the reviews continue, including one from Lavinia Sebastian, who stated in her post about Philip Nitschke’s “Peaceful Pill Book,”: “You will understand my disappointment if you have lost a loved one who was only 19 years old. This book was in his drawer!”
Philip Nitschke, whose book is at the center of the lawsuit, received heavy financial support in his early years from The Hemlock Society of the United States. That organization combined with Compassion & Choices, and lobbied successfully to legalize assisted suicide in California in 2015.
Despite always denying that assisted suicide affects suicidal teenagers, the years-long desensitization to assisting suicide is becoming apparent. The rotten fruits include expansion of assisted suicide laws among state policy-makers, increased use of assisted suicide by people with disabilities and if the allegations of lawsuit are accurate, callous disregard for life by pushing how-do manuals for teen suicide along with noxious poisons.
As Live Action founder and president Lila Rose stated in a 2015 post, “When we tell them that physician-assisted suicide is even an option, it becomes a subtle form of pressure.” Clearly the pressure has trickled down from suicide activists, to state regulators, then online salesmen, and now easily and disastrously into the hands of troubled teens.
