The debreather and NuTech: a reply to Kleespies

This article responds to Phillip Kleespies's (2010/this issue) commentary on NuTech fieldworkers and their use of the debreather. Non-medical assistance with suicide raises legitimate concerns about accountability, public safety, and care for those who are suffering. Given that suicide is not a crime, an outcome of the NuTech movement may be that suicide techniques will become refined to a point where covert assistance is unnecessary. Assuming that the internal social controls of NuTech fieldworkers will permit greater transparency, it is foreseeable that fieldworkers will eventually report suicides to the authorities, similar to the Swiss model for assisted suicide.