British style icon died after drinking weedkiller

[seriousstan]

Source: breitbart

Isabella Blow, the idiosyncratic British fashion stylist known for her garish hats and red lipstick, killed herself by taking 20 times the fatal dose of weedkiller, a coroner's inquest heard Wednesday.
The 48-year-old had previously tried to take her own life at least three times before -- by jumping off a bridge, ramming her car into a lorry and overdosing on tablets, her sister, Lavinia Verney, told the hearing.


Coroner Alan Crickmore, sitting in Gloucester, western England, recorded a verdict of suicide after being told the fashion director of upscale magazine Tatler had told hospital staff she wanted to die.

She died in hospital on May 7 this year, two days after taking the poison at her home in Stroud, near Gloucester.

The inquest heard she knew that her second husband, Detmar Blow's father, had killed himself using the same poison. She had also been suffering from depression.


Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071205181401.ls1nylgk&show_article=1

[aquart]

1. So they weren't able to help the depression?

[xchrom]

2. very, very sad. -- that must have been a painfull way to die. very sad. nt

[medeak]

3. what a horrible death... had pt go that way... n/t

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. A canny move for a suicider

She's prolly expecting to be buried and doesn't want any weeds to grow on her grave.

(gallows humor, friend, nothing worth getting panties bunched up over)

[mitchum]

5. Well, you know about the British mania for gardening

[Cronus Protagonist]

6. Yeah, she prolly wants to be pushing up roses, not daisies n/t

:P

[Mike Daniels]

7. So what exactly is the specific fatal dose of weedkiller?

I find it interesting that they were that specific in detailing how much she took. Most accounts would have probably left it at "killed herself by ingesting weedkiller".

[seriousstan]

8. She took Paraquat, so the lethal dose is 35 mg/kg body weight.

The minimum lethal dose by oral ingestion in human beings is about 35 mg/kg body weight, although less could be lethal without treatment.

[hyphenate]

9. yikes

I have to say this: if she was so determined to kill herself, which she finally managed to do, I think it's time we begin to look at the whole suicidal experience with a whole different persepective. There appears to be a segment of the population which will continue trying to kill themselves despite all sorts of intervention--shouldn't they have a choice on how and when they die? I find myself wishing that people should have that kind of a choice, and instead of making them find more and more horrible ways to do it, they should be able to die with dignity and peace.

[seriousstan]

10. Yes, all depressed, mentally unstable people should have access to death.

[Cronus Protagonist]

11. They DO have access to death

:)

[The Stranger]

12. So well struck.

Albeit, very macabre.

[Cronus Protagonist]

14. It has to be the most basic human right

To live or not to live, that is the question. And death is also invitable, I'm sure I don't need to point that out, other than to note that this is the part that I'm not happy about personally. :(

[hyphenate]

13. And that isn't what I said

anyway: what I said was that those who are so determined to commit suicide should be able to choose it if they're going to keep trying over and over again.

Thing is: if someone is really serious, they will find a way. And more people succeed every day.

To some, an act of suicide is not a desire to kill themselves, it's a call for help. For others, it is a desire to end it all. Much of the time, they don't succeed, and so their personal hell begins, not wanting to live, and caught up in people trying to "rescue" them.

If someone is depressed and only wanting to end it all at a given moment in time, psychiatric therapy might help. But there is a percentage that can't be "cured" by any means. And trying to end it ends up requiring more and more horrendous means to get that goal.

Why should they have to turn to such means? Shouldn't they have the right to end their life if they want to? Isn't that equivalent to other matters of pro-choice? For someone who has exhausted all the psychiatric help available as well as all the potential solutions other than that, why must we save them from "themselves?" It's one of the reasons I have problems with the prosecution and imprisonment of Dr. Kevorkian, for example, and anyone else who doesn't want to let people live or die of their own volition. Death is as personal and as private an issue as you can get--some people use their religious beliefs to prevent other people from executing their own choices. So this makes suicide a matter of personal choice--should anyone do their best to prevent someone from killing themselves? To some extent, yes. But if the person is clearly not dealing with depression or other psychiatric illness and is simply a pragmatist, perhaps it's in their own best interest to be left alone. I know some people are going to be uncomfortable with that kind of a comment, but it's no different than any other choice a person makes in their OWN life and on their own terms. Most people are NOT suicidal, so it's not something that a person will ever experience in their lives, but it really shouldn't be anyone's business what a person chooses to do to themselves.

[superconnected]

15. Actually they should have access to mental health professionals.

Helping the terminally ill and in pain (what kevorkian was doing), is a whole lot different than helping the depressed die.

Depression often leads to suidical thoughts and tries, and it often has periods of being glad they didn't die when they tried. Depression is also often a chemical imbalance that can be treated.

[hyphenate]

16. I've been on both sides of the argument

and I can testify that I'm not ready to check out yet by any means. But if someone has physical and psychiatric issues that can't be dealt with in any other fashion, they should have the option to choose their own end.

Most people in the world find dealing with psychological issues something distasteful. In truth, dealing with something that isn't a physical issue is viewed as a weakness by most people--it's not something eagerly discussed by most people. In many families that I know of, it's like having the plague to admit you have "mental" problems. In my own life, having several major bouts of depression is something that's not exactly discussed on a regular basis at all--my sister, the alcoholic and drug addict, believes she's more "normal" than me because she doesn't see anyone about her little "problems" but in the end, she is just fooling herself. Do I "enjoy" myself when I see my psychiatrist? I see it as nothing different than seeing any other doctor that is able to help me deal with things.

Having an illness that people can't readily see is often worse than one that people can see and understand. But as I've dealt with fibromyalgia and other chronic conditions which aren't apparent, I know how that feels already. Some people don't look at mental illnesses as "terminal" but if all avenues of treatment have been exhausted and none of them has succeeded, why can't someone believe that the person is in any way less in need of a more final solution?

I agree that many people need to seek out help with our psychological doctors, but because there is a major stigma attached to them, that's not going to be something easy to do. It's only by getting rid of the bad connotations can we get more people to seek help in the area of psychiatric issues. And that's not likely to be either easy or soon.

[Cronus Protagonist]

17. I think people to should be able to choose Self-Passing

It would benefit mankind overall. It would be the most dignified, heroic way to go for some people. At the personal level, Self-Passing would offer an honorable release from mental anguish and would simultaneously be a true gift to mankind. A more heroic way to go is hard to imagine.




:evilgrin: