Undercover Reporters: Drug Used in Worldwide Euthanasia Faces Crackdown

Bioethics   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 14, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Undercover Reporters: Drug Used in Worldwide Euthanasia Faces Crackdown

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 14
, 2008

Tijuana, Mexico (LifeNews.com) — An undercover news team from a television station in San Diego has found that officials in Mexico are cracking down on a drug promoted for suicides. Euthanasia advocates worldwide have been promoting Mexico as a destination to obtain drugs that elderly people or terminally ill patients can use to kill themselves.

As LifeNews.com has reported, at least 200 people from English-speaking countries have traveled to since 2001 to end their lives by obtaining a drug normally used to euthanize animals — Nembutal.

Exit International, a pro-euthanasia group from Australia, is one of the groups promoting the purchase of the drug because it was easy to obtain for a small amount of money.

But undercover reporters from News 10 in San Diego find that’s not the case anymore.

The drug, a strong barbiturate, was formerly used as a sleeping pill and it has been blamed for the deaths of luminaries such as Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland and Jimi Hendrix.

To see if the drug is still as readily available, undercover reporters from News 10 went to Tijuana and followed the instructions found in a book Australian euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke has written with specific instructions on obtaining Nembutal.

They found that one pharmacy would sell the drug under the name pento barbital without a prescription and for the cost of $40. However, when a hidden camera malfunctioned and alterted the owner, he said the drug was no longer available.

The News 10 reporters then went further south to Rosarito to a veterinarian’s office and showed him pictures of the drug they wanted to purchase. But the veterinarian told the reporters that Mexican officials are cracking down on the drug and are now requiring a doctor’s note to purchase it.

Other pharmacies in the two towns where the reporters inquired about the drug found it unavailable and they indicated the only way to purchase it now may be to resort to the black market.

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