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The Exit Internationalist

November 2, 2024

Commotion within Cooperative Last Will over side effects Middel X (Sodium Azide)

De Volkskrant

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Commotion within Cooperative Last Will over side effects Middel X (Sodium Azide)

November 2, 2024, 05:00

Maud Effting and Haro Kraak are following all developments surrounding the voluntary end of life, euthanasia, suicide and Middel X.

Does Middel X lead to a peaceful death or not? A discussion has erupted among members of the Last Will Cooperative about severe side effects that can occur after taking the suicide drug. This is according to an open letter sent Friday to the board.

Former police officer Dik van Oers (80), who purchased the drug with several people this summer through what he says was a legal construction, wrote in an open letter on Friday that he has recently received signals to doubt the peaceful effect of Middel X, a legal substance launched in 2017 by Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW) as a suitable suicide drug for people who no longer want to live.

Cooperative Last Will is an organization fighting for the right to “end of life in one’s own control

Direct cause for the open letter is a death with the drug, of which video footage was taken.

‘This ingestion was considerably less calm than I had imagined based on the supposedly humane nature of the drug,’ writes CLW member Van Oers, who has seen the footage. ‘I am convinced that this absolutely does not fit the pattern of expectations created by the CLW.’

Uncontrolled movements

The images show the person making uncontrolled movements, Van Oers says by phone. ‘The arms went up, the back straightened, the head came up.

These were movements that occurred both while conscious and later in a comatose state. I thought: suppose you’re alone, you could fall out of bed. You want to avoid those side effects or accidents.’

Some members consider these normal phenomena in dying, Van Oers says. ‘There are nurses who have seen this many times and are less impressed by it. But I still don’t think this is ‘part of it.’

The images troubled Van Oers all the more because he was involved in the joint purchase of Middel X for 20 people. In early September, he told the Volkskrant about this project.

The initiative was remarkable, since two members of CLW had just been convicted of participating in a criminal organization whose goal was to provide assisted suicide.

“I feel burdened,” Van Oers writes in the letter, ”that people have come into possession of this tool from a pattern of expectation that in retrospect is not entirely correct.

Discussion flared up

Last week the discussion about the drug flared up again because of findings from the Argos podcast Dolle Mina’s of Death. Among other things, that discusses research by the GGD Amsterdam and 113 Suicide Prevention into 172 people who died from suicide drugs such as Middel X.

An analysis of more than 100 autopsy reports showed that some people who had used Middel X also died under violent circumstances, although the GGD was unable to say exactly how many cases that would be.

The Volkskrant in 2021 also investigated several cases involving Middel X, using eyewitness accounts. Among them were peaceful deaths, but also the case of a man who ended up in a gruesome agony after taking the drug, asking for a knife. ‘Then I’ll end it.’

Last week, the CLW board decided to replace the word “humane” with “normal” or “humane” dying in communications about Middel X.

‘You have shock or you have foam around your mouth or you let your feces run,’ the CLW site now says. ‘All those kinds of things can happen in normal dying.’

Van Oers finds this change “inadequate,” he writes in his letter. ‘The bandwidth of ‘normal’ is stretched very far indeed.’

On the phone, he adds, ‘There needs to be a much better picture of the risks and a better protocol of ingestion. There are attenuating agents that can reduce unwanted symptoms, although these are prescription-only drugs.’
Motion to suspend the board

The discussion about Middel X is not the only commotion within CLW at the moment. A group of 13 prominent members recently filed a motion calling for the immediate suspension of the board.

According to the motion, there is financial mismanagement, conflict of interest and an incapable board that is “not working toward CLW goals.

A membership meeting will be held in two weeks, where both the motion and the open letter will be discussed.

‘We feel that this board has had many successes since taking office last May, and we will explain that at the meeting,’ said chairman Rob van Doorn. ‘Next Monday we will respond to the allegations in the motion in substance on the site.’

Protocol

About the effect of Middel X, Van Doorn says: ‘Nine out of ten reports I receive from relatives are positive experiences with the remedy. I don’t know if that’s because only those stories reach me. Of course, we know that sometimes unpleasant side effects can also occur.

Is the board also considering expanding the protocol of intake? Van Doorn: “We are talking about this on an ongoing basis. We are not yet sure whether it is desirable in all cases to take such attenuating medications with it.’


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