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David Goodall: Scientist, 104, begins trip to end his life
On Wednesday, 104-year-old scientist David Goodall bid farewell to his home in Australia to fly across the world to end his life. The lauded ecologist and botanist is not suffering from a serious illness but wishes to bring forward his death. Key to his decision, he says, has been his diminishing independence.
"I greatly regret having reached that age," Dr Goodall said on his birthday last month, in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "I'm not happy. I want to die. It's not sad particularly. What is sad is if one is prevented."
Assisted dying was legalised by one Australian state last year following a divisive debate, but eligibility requires a person be terminally ill. It is illegal in other states. Dr Goodall says he will travel to a clinic in Switzerland to voluntarily end his life. However, he says he resents having to leave Australia to do so.
Also at USA Today, CNN, and The Local.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @10:28AM (8 children)
Just walk around in the bush for a while or something
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @10:35AM
Are there clinics performing euthanasia in the Australian bush?
'cause the critters there are quite discerning, will kill only able people.
Idiots like you are safe, you are welcome to try.
(Score: 2) by KiloByte on Friday May 04 2018, @02:32PM (6 children)
The guy is 104 but looks fit enough for a short stroll through the bush. Which also means he's more than fit enough to operate a shotgun. They removed this particular human right in Australia, but it shouldn't be that hard to obtain a weapon that provides a swift death without having to deal with months of paperwork, and, on your final day, hours of medical bullshit and injections.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 04 2018, @02:45PM
what I find very annoying is the fact that his "friend" relates the suicide to his problems with an office from the university (for those who don't know: two years ago the university wanted him to stop coming to his office, because they had safety concerns; he went to court and won the right to an office, that was however moved closer to his home. a friend claims that once he had to go to a different building, not meeting the people he used to at the office, he started to be less and less happy).
she says "once that started, he started to decline".
maybe the decline had started before, hence the concerns about his safety (and his natural reaction was to be angry and more energetic while the fight over the office was happening).
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday May 04 2018, @09:01PM
It's AUSTRALIA. That would be pretty much any living organism on the continent.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Saturday May 05 2018, @12:12AM (3 children)
You have obviously never seen how messy a firearm suicide can be.
Too small a caliber and you are a vegetable on life support. Miss your brain stem/ Medulla Obbligato (you would be surprised how often that happens) even with a suitable caliber and you also end up as vegetable Too large, especially true of a shotgun, and it looks like a scene from Friday the 13th, Unrated Directors cut.
Either way its not all that kind to the person who finds you. It also damages the property value, and then there are the clean up costs involved so you hurt the value of whatever estate you leave behind.
Seeking a quite, peaceful, and cleaner, method via some easier to control mix of painless toxins is far better for everyone involved. I am frequently surprised at how hard it seems to be for the country's that use lethal injection to find the right "cocktail" to do the job. I would expect any first year medical student could come up with an effective mix with only a little effort.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by KiloByte on Saturday May 05 2018, @12:38AM (2 children)
I don't think leaving a pretty corpse is my primary concern. Old men don't look good, and especially corpses are not appealing. Stick that into a cremation box and be done.
There's no such thing as overkill. If I could sit on a nuke, there's no way the neural signal reaches my brain before I'm a cloud of plasma.
As for trusting doctors, I see you haven't visited one in a while, have you? I'm suffering from quite debilitating headaches right now, and hearing their mutually contradicting theories even I could find obvious holes in would be funny if it wasn't about the body part I'm supposed to think with.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @12:59AM (1 child)
Anyone comment on using a jug of nitrogen... Readily rented from many industrial refrigeration and welding shops. I have heard its a painless and clean way to end the program.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 05 2018, @01:32AM
I'd comment about it, but I died in the process and forgot my final memories after becoming a ghost.