Sites which provide suicide information on the internet are banned in some countries. But in the Netherlands, the Dutch Medical Association is helping to promote a reliable do-it-yourself suicide guide for doctors and their patients, according to the British Medical Journal. The 180-page book, "Information about the Careful Ending of Life", which is available for sale on the internet for 25 Euros, will soon be available in a condensed English translation. It has been published by the Foundation for Scientific Research into Careful Suicide, which is headed by a leading Dutch advocate of euthanasia, Dr Pieter Admiraal.

Like other suicide books, this gives advice about refusing food and fluids and taking a combination of drugs to induce coma and death. Amongst the authors are a chemist who writes under a pseudonym and a Canadian expert in the sociology of euthanasia, Russel D. Ogden. Mr Ogden described a method for committing suicide in a potentially undetectable way with helium in a 2002 issue of the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology.

The book is aimed at people who are not experiencing unbearable and hopeless suffering. These conditions are required to qualify for a doctor’s assistance in euthanasia, which is legal in the Netherlands. However, the Dutch Medical Association apparently feels that people who are not terminally ill also have a right to die if they want. The authors do advise patients against acting impulsively and counsel young people to contact a doctor if they feel suicidal.

The medical association’s ethics policy adviser, Gert van Dijk, pointed out that although doctors are not supposed to assist suicides, they still have a "duty of care" to help people remain comfortable. The book should assist them in this. ~ BMJ, June 21