13,737 Quotes About Death

  • Author Derek Humphry
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    The key to the effectiveness of cyanide as a killer is the water. This is borne out by evidence in textbooks that flocks of sheep that have eaten plants containing cyanide do not die so long as they do not drink. If the animals are near water, the plants are fatal.

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  • Author Derek Humphry
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    When choosing to die on a mountain or similar lonely place, it is considerate to leave a note saying where your body can be found. Otherwise, people might risk their lives and expend considerable resources hunting in dangerous places for you.

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  • Author Derek Humphry
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    Not so bizarre, and a method for which I have respect, is freezing to death on a mountain. It takes a certain sort of person to want to die this way: having a love of and knowledge of mountains, determination, and the enduring courage to carry it off.

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  • Author Derek Humphry
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    Another depressed man in southern California who collected rattlesnakes as a hobby deliberately allowed one of his pets to bite him five or six times on the right hand. He suffered a fatal heart attack.

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  • Author Derek Humphry
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    Self-destruction by hanging is almost always an act of protest, a desire to shock and hurt someone. Therefore, believers in euthanasia avoid it. Even if the job of cutting down the body is left to the police or paramedics, this is an unacceptably selfish way to die, and I have never heard of a euthanasia supporter using it. Unless the neck is broken by the rope jerking the fall to a stop (as a professional hangman arranges), then it is death by strangulation, often not so quick.

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  • Author Derek Humphry
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    Death comes quickly in bitterly cold water from hypothermia. The lower the temperature, the faster the end. But there is always the chance that someone of whom you are not aware is watching and there is a possibility of rescue. This manner of suicide also leaves unanswered questions for survivors. Was it deliberate (if no note is left) or accidental? Will the body ever be found? Will there be an extensive search for the body, risking other people’s lives and a great deal of public expense?

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