THE 21st CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Amazon “suicide kits” have led to teen deaths, according to new lawsuit.
Lawyers, who are representing parents suing Amazon for selling “suicide kits” to teenagers who died by suicide, say they have reached a “breaking point.”
Amazon lawyers have allegedly told parents that the online retailer had a right to sell these so-called “suicide kits.” The kits are described in the lawsuit as bundled items that Amazon suggests buyers purchase together, including a potentially lethal chemical called sodium nitrite, a scale to measure a lethal dose, a drug to prevent vomiting, and a book with instructions on how to use the chemical to attempt suicide. The online retailer’s lawyers also allegedly said that it would be “unfair and inhumane” to hold Amazon liable for the teens’ deaths.
One of the parents’ lawyers, Carrie Goldberg, took to Twitter yesterday, alleging that Amazon’s corporate ties with news outlets like CBS are effectively working to silence media attention for their lawsuit, while more lives likely remain at risk.
“For months, we avoided press attention to this case,” Goldberg, founder of C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, told Ars in a statement. “But we have reached a breaking point of too many people dying, of medical providers not knowing what is happening or that a treatment protocol exists, and of press spiking stories about it—presumably because of corporate ties to Amazon.”
Read the whole thing.