Update 7/20/2023: Alex S., the Dutch man who was accused of distributing “suicide powder” in the Netherlands to at least 10 people who used it to kill themselves has been found guilty of aiding in suicides. The judge said he “resented” Alex for “taking the lives of others so lightly” and “harming the value of human life.” Alex was sentenced to three and a half years in prison with 18 months suspended.
Selling the powder, known as “substance x” is not illegal in the Netherlands unless it is sold with the purpose of causing death. Alex had sold the “suicide kits” to about 1,600 people between 2018 and 2021.
“There is a careful procedure in the Netherlands,” the judge told Alex, “which should protect weak and vulnerable people from themselves and others and prevent people from hastily and involuntarily ending their lives.
“You are not a doctor, not a pharmacist and not trained to handle medicine [but you] manufactured suicide kits in a businesslike manner.”
The judge also noted, “By sending it through mail in simple jars with a screw cap, the possibility can not be excluded that it got into the hands of children.”
The prosecution had asked for a longer sentence of four years but the judge order a slightly shorter sentence due to to Alex’s autism diganosis and because he suffers from suicidial thoughts. Alex was said to be “shocked” by his sentence. His attorney, Tom Gijsberts, told RTL Nieuws that he had hoped the judge would be even more lenient than he was. “I understand that the court wants this not to happen again, but the judge did not sufficiently take into account Alex’s situation,” he said.
Euthanasia is legal is the Netherlands under certain conditions.
7/10/2023: The trial has begun for a Dutch man who is accused of distributing 1600 packages of “suicide powder” in the Netherlands between November 2018 and June 2021. Prosecutors are pushing for a four-year sentence for the crime, which is thought to have contributed to the deaths of 10 individuals.
Though assisted suicide is legal in the Netherlands, the man, Alex S., broke the law by circumventing the country’s regulations, which require that assisted suicide and euthanasia be carried out with the aid of a doctor. Alex is also charged with money laundering and breaking the country’s medicine act in connection with the distribution.
Dutch News reports that Alex is a member of Cooperatie Laatste Wil (CLW, Last Wish Cooperative), a pro-euthanasia group that fights for legalized death “without a doctor, supervisor, or anyone else being able to block it.” The group’s website boasts, “Because only we ourselves can determine whether our life is over or when the suffering is unbearable.”
After Alex discovered that he could easily access the powder, known as “substance X” on the internet, he began selling it for profit. Prosecutors say he packaged the powder in doses of four times the lethal amount and then sold it to whoever wanted it — without verifying who his clients were.
In his defense, Alex has reportedly said, “We must be able to decide for ourselves what we do with our body, life, and end of life.”
Though people who choose euthanasia often do so because they are looking for a peaceful, controlled death, prosecutors say that the substance X powder can be a painful way to die, as it deprives the cells of oxygen. It can take hours for a person to lose consciousness while they experience a number of side effects, including vomiting, diarrhea, chest pains, convulsions, and cardiac arrest. It can take up to 40 hours for a person to die after ingesting it, and there is currently no antidote or medicine to counteract its effects.
Despite the lethal nature of the powder, Dutch News reports that it is still available for sale without consequences, so long as the seller does not market it as a suicide powder. Randy Knol, whose daughter Ximena died from ingesting the powder, established Ximena’s Butterfly Foundation in 2021 to advocate for the ban of substance X altogether.
