Wash. State Woman 1st Death Under New Suicide Law

Linda Fleming was diagnosed with terminal cancer and feared her last days would be filled with pain and ever-stronger doses of medication that would erode her mind.

The 66-year-old woman with late-stage pancreatic cancer wanted to be clear-headed at death, so she became the first person to kill herself under Washington state’s new assisted suicide law, known as “death with dignity.”

“I am a very spiritual person, and it was very important to me to be conscious, clear-minded and alert at the time of my death,” Fleming said in a statement released Friday. “The powerful pain medications were making it difficult to maintain the state of mind I wanted to have at my death. And I knew I would have to increase them.”

With family members, her physician and her dog at her side, Fleming took a deadly dose of prescription barbiturates and died Thursday night at her home in Sequim, Wash.

Chris Carlson, who campaigned against the new law with the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide, called the death unfortunate.

“Any premature death is a sad occasion and it diminishes us all,” he said.

Compassion & Choices of Washington, an advocacy group that aids people who seek to use the law, announced her death.

Last November, Washington became the second state to have a voter-approved assisted suicide law. It is based on a law adopted by Oregon voters in 1997. Since then, about 400 people have used the Oregon law to end their lives.

via My Way News – Wash. state woman 1st death under new suicide law.

‘How Far Can You Bounce?’ Shouts Push Suicidal Teen to Death

Jeering onlookers goaded a teenager in Britain to jump to his death, undermining police efforts to talk him down, and then took pictures of the body.

Tuesday as 17-year-old Shaun Dykes prepared to jump from the top of a multi-storey carpark in Derby, northern England, spectators allegedly shouted to him: “How far can you bounce?,” the U.K.’s MailOnline reported.

As Dykes hesitated for three hours on the ledge while police unsuccessfully tried to reason him out of taking his life, teenagers who had gathered below shouted “Jump” and “Get on with it,” according to police and witnesses.

Then after Dykes lay in a crumpled heap on the pavement the same hecklers rushed out from behind the police cordon to take photos of the body.

“When he (Dykes) fell, lots of people were screaming and crying but there were several groups of youths who ran from behind the cordon and looked like they were taking pictures with their mobile phones,” a local shopkeeper was quoted as telling the MailOnline.

“I found that sickening — why would anyone want to take pictures of something like that?”

Dykes was believed to have been suffering from depression and struggling to overcome a relationship breakdown.

Superintendent Andy Hough, of Derbyshire police, said he was disappointed and disturbed by the people heard encouraging Dykes to jump.

“I find it a disturbing and shocking reflection on society when people feel inclined to do that,” Supt Hough told the MailOnline.

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