What this article isn't mentioning is that these weren't sent to random people like anthrax, it was likely purchased explicitly to commit suicide.
I learned that was even a thing the other week on Lemmy.
this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
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Death by sodium nitrate doesn't sound pleasant. Ya'll don't sell the helium party balloon filling kits in Canada?
Most helium now has oxygen in it precisely to prevent this.
escMode also sold kits that had everything but inert gas, which is widely available legally.
So they take away the peaceful methods of checking out and then wonder why people choose firearms.
Most helium now has oxygen in it precisely to prevent this.
What a shitty thing to do! Inhaling an inert gas is apparently one of the least stressful ways to go, as CO2 buildup is what triggers the asphixiation response rather than the lack of oxygen.
I'm upset that they make it hard to commit suicide in a fairly bombproof painless way. Motherfuckers.
Why is this a crime, though? Would it be somehow better if those suicide victims had slashed their wrists instead?
That is pretty much how most legal regimes operate, yes. Then there are the ones that outright criminalize suicide.
Edit: as for why, it’s been shown in some studies that making access to methods difficult does reduce suicide. Cynically, maybe doing that keeps a workforce at better strength.
If serving people (and the wider society) were the priority among past and current legislators, we'd be doing what we can across the board to prevent people from falling into suicidal depression, instead of just trapping them in lives they feel are unbearable. It absolutely is about keeping the numbers of "workers" up, even if some are too depressed to work.
This isn't exactly that though. While some places do criminalize attempts (ex. Fines if caught, punishments for surviving family), this is closer to criminalizing the act of assisting a suicide.
Which makes sense. If someone is having a mental health crisis and is on a bridge, and you egg them on, that would be punished.
There was this other case a few years ago: https://globalnews.ca/news/3645988/suicide-text-trial-sentencing/
Profiting from that process is even worse, it incentivizes trying to find people that could otherwise get support and instead profiting off their death.
Maybe there is some truth to the cynical take, but it doesn't make much sense to me. Even if it was about maximizing worker output, a depressed suicidal worker is not going to be that productive.
Yes we need better mental health and social supports and yes we also need laws like this to prevent people from taking advantage of vulnerable people.