Voluntary Assisted Dying / Euthanasia for Tinnitus Patients (Pegasos Swiss Association, Switzerland)

This is a very delicate topic but one must that must be addressed. If a person has been suffering for many years, can't lead a satisfactory life, and wants to end their suffering, they must have the option for euthanasia.

Previously, the Swiss organization "Dignitas" has not allowed people with tinnitus to use their services. Now this has changed with the newly launched organization, "Pegasos".

Exit International provides the following information on Pegasos:
https://exitinternational.net/swisspegasos/

Pegasos is different from the other voluntary assisted dying providers because they have English speaking staff and they cut some red tape while minimizing waiting times.

The website of Pegasos is:
https://pegasos-association.com/

SERIOUS DISCUSSION ONLY!! I'm not interested if you think tinnitus shouldn't be grounds for euthanasia.

 

Personally I would like to have this option available and on back burner, it would be a relief for me to know that if things go terribly wrong I’ve got an option of death but with dignity.

As @Allan1967 said in one of his posts, I would rather opt for this than traumatise family even more by picking my pieces somewhere in the wild.

Do you have info on what is required and what’s the process for tinnitus only?

 

Having the option of peaceful exit is definitely a great option to have, should everything else fail.

This is especially important to those, who have no access to firearms, as personally I would be very uneasy, having to rely on any other methods (such hanging, poisoning, or leaping off a tall building), which are not as reliable and not as quick as a gunshot directly into the brain.

 

How do you know they accept tinnitus as a condition? I cannot see anything except they will accept people who are not well, i.e. going blind due to old age? Tinnitus still may not be a satisfying criteria unless it is found elsewhere on the website.

 

You can email them and ask. I did. Tinnitus is accepted as long as you're of sound mind, the same goes for mental conditions, they can serve you if you have a debilitating mental condition and are over the age of 18, as long as you're not psychotic or unable to make the decision yourself.

@Allan1967 has also confirmed with Pegasos that tinnitus is an acceptable reason.

I will update this topic when I know more. Now I only know the process is more streamlined than with Dignitas. You will still need a doctor's assessment and certificate. And Pegasos will need to submit some documents to Swiss State which can take time.

The fee is about €10,000EUR, it includes everything (except for travel to Switzerland), including cremation and sending your ashes home.

 

I love vets, they take better care of animals than most doctors take of humans.

Why are animals allowed a peaceful exit, but humans not (in most countries)?

@FGG I like you. Are you going to return to your work as a vet in the future? You probably have/had access to Pentobarbital? In some countries vets use the products meant for animals on themselves. That's how desperate a life can become.

 

Thanks. I keep renewing my license because as I have said in another thread... hope dies last.

I am still not able to work as a vet again (I have partnered with a disabled friend and we do reselling now for the time being, successfully amazingly) but yes, I hope to return one day to the career I dedicated my whole adult life up to this point to.

What you say about veterinary euthanasia barbiturates is 100% true. Vets who have killed themselves have famously used it on themselves.

 

There should be a way to die while being able to donate your organs, I would take great comfort in knowing my life counted for something when my time comes.

 

I feel that in all cases dealing with tinnitus, this fee should be paid by the government of the tinnitus sufferer.

For example, I had paid taxes into the health care system for all of my adult life and when I need them, they have failed me in the worst possible way.

Since there is no cure or even a real treatment available, this one should be on them (along with a letter of apology for the lack of action on their part, since nobody is taking tinnitus seriously).

 

Good luck with that. Majority of governments don't allow euthanasia so they will not cover your euthanasia bill from a foreign (Switzerland) country either. The only way to change that is by voting people who support euthanasia into your own government's parliament, or you can become a politician yourself.

 

Yes I realize that.

The only other good way to achieve this would be if the family of the euthanized tinnitus sufferer sent their government the bill in the most publicized way possible.

This would go a long way towards either shaming them into paying the bill, or maybe this would result into tinnitus being taken more seriously.

 

You can get an exit bag off the darknet TOR services for much cheaper and if you are lazy just throw your ass off a tall building or shoot yourself.

These places are a waste of money, killing yourself ain't that hard. Seriously these are boomer suicide methods.

 

In the US you simply designate yourself as an organ donor on your driver's license... other places don’t have this?

 

1) Guns are not easy to get outside North America. Even shotguns also do not have a 100% success rate (though they are close).

2) Some people really don't want to die alone ideally.

3) You could inadvertently hurt or kill others if you jump off a building.

4) Exit bags are probably the best option of the ones you listed, probably the least traumatic. Though not everyone knows how to use the dark web.

5) I think most people contemplating this couldn't give the slightest shit about wasting money or using an uncool "boomer" suicide method.

Maybe 15 years as a veterinarian has really given me a positive bias towards injectable euthanasia but there is a reason even old farmers brought their dogs to me to be put down rather than shoot them like they used to.

 

It’s not that easy.

@ajc Thanks for creating this thread.

 

It takes some thought process but it ain't difficult.

 

Most definitely, if this went public it would create a bit of debate at least.

We are truly left to fetch for ourselves, not only that we suffer and can’t be helped but we have to deal with doctors negligence, lack of understanding and support.

Their egos are too big to admit failure!

 

I’m an organ donor, I’m in Australia and it’s listed on my driver's license.

 

I agree.
There is nothing worse in life than intense 24/7 suffering from a horrid, debilitating and yet invisible condition, of which most people never even heard off and for which there is no help available.

And most of those who did, put it in the same category as a sore foot or a paper cut.
Unless of course they get it themselves.

 

Psychologists and psychiatrists are the ones to blame. They are the ones pushing this mental resilience dogma. Not any other group.

 

General practitioners aka doctors, too.

 

Mental resilience is pushed by almost everyone who does not understand what tinnitus does to people.
For someone who gets to relax and sleep normally without giving it a second thought, it is indeed very easy to advocate the tough guy approach.

But if you were to take any one of those tough talking people and reduce their sleep via extreme sound torture to 1 or 2 hours a day, even the most hardcore ones would fold like a paper bag within a week, along with a complete meltdown.

Now tell them this torture will continue for the rest of their life and they will bag you to kill them, as they will finally understand that the ability to sleep and relax is the very foundation of our well being both physically and mentally.

A waking nightmare is the most accurate description of this existence.

 

Has anyone ever mentioned euthanasia in front of their doctors?

 

Yes, in front of my psychiatrist when I first got tinnitus. He did not like me talking about this and I could see it made him uncomfortable... gave me antidepressants.

 

Well, now that COVID-19 is taking so many lives... for those who really want to die you could just become a frontline worker or an essential worker in an area with high rates of COVID-19. Could die at least helping others.

 

Again it's not certain, given the high chance of surviving the disease.

 

Anyone can easily kill themselves with the exit bag method.

Anyone who really wants to kill themselves always finds a way.

I suggest face-to-face therapy before killing yourself.

 

Good question! When I was on therapy, I only mentioned that I was considering suicide (this though has come back lately due to my recent worsening) and she gave me that look... how to describe... I just realised in a split of a second that it was pointless. She wouldn't understand. Who can understand how life is when everything is falling apart by an invisible disease that literally affects EVERYTHING 24/7?

Euthanasia can be a serious taboo.

 

@ajc What is this?

 

I think it's a method to CTB by using a bag filled with inert gas to induce hypoxia.
Too demanding in regards to technique. So since this thread is about euthanasia, if I had 10.000 EUR I would book a place for me there.