Suicide as a tidy little earner
A Japanese man deep in debt has been arrested after making assisted suicide into a money-spinner. Kazunari Saito, 33, will probably be charged with murder-by-contract, which is punishable with seven years in jail. Police allege that a woman paid him ?200,000 to kill her by administering a huge dose of sleeping pills and then suffocating her with a plastic bag. Mr Saito set up a suicide web site to make money because he owed ?6 million to various moneylenders, said police. By selling sleeping pills over the internet, he had managed to earn about ?1 million.
Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.
Latest posts by Michael Cook (see all)
- How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
- House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
- Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021
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