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Feds Seize Suicide Kits Sold by 91-Year-Old Woman

It's helium hoods instead of tea cozies for Sharlotte Hydorn

By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff

Posted May 27, 2011 2:20 AM CDT

(Newser) – While lots of grandmas are knitting tea cozies, 91-year-old Sharlotte Hydorn is stitching together suicide kits for her mail-order business. Now FBI agents have raided Hydorn's home in a search for material that could be used in a case against her, reports KTLA. Hydorn's kits consist of tubing and a plastic "helium hood" that can cause suffocation once linked to a tank of gas supplied by the user. At least one of the kits and a tank of helium obtained from a party store were used by a 29-year-old depressed customer in an Oregon suicide last year, according to authorities.

The death has led to a new bill in Oregon that would make it a felony to sell or transfer equipment to another person to use in a suicide. Hydorn says her "exit kits" are intended to help terminally ill people end their lives with dignity in their own homes.

Activist Faye Girsh talks about the right to die. Feds have seized equipment from California woman Sharlotte Hydorn that she sends out in the mail to help people commit suicide.
Activist Faye Girsh talks about the right to die. Feds have seized equipment from California woman Sharlotte Hydorn that she sends out in the mail to help people commit suicide.   (Goose19729)
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Sharlotte Hydorn talks about her kits that kill.   (Goose19729)

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 5 comments
VonLmo
May 27, 2011 10:09 AM CDT
this woman is a saint.
Mad
May 27, 2011 9:20 AM CDT
If there is a God, I hope She blesses people like Hydorn.   I fail to see why anyone can tell me what I decide to do to MY body.  We, as a society, tend to our aged and infirmed pets more humanely than we treat ourselves.
crafter67
May 27, 2011 2:46 AM CDT
Yeah, the problem with mail order retail, is you can't be sure you are selling the kits to the terminally ill, and not the depressed or homicidal. On another note - she herself looks amazing for being 91 yrs old (if that is her picture)

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