Source: Family First
MEDIA RELEASE – 20 August 2025
Disturbing Details Of Euthanasia Drugs – Expert
It’s not just the use of sedatives – it’s the neuromuscular blockers designed to ensure those watching the death only see peace and calm when the reality could be quite different.
Family First is today releasing a podcast that highlights the reality of what happens when drugs are given for assisted suicide and euthanasia.
In the podcast interview with Sharon Quick MD – a retired American paediatric anaesthetist and critical care physician – she talks through the drugs used overseas, and likely here in New Zealand, and what they actually do to the human body.
From the use of lethal drugs to paralyse patients so they cannot speak or respond, to sedatives which wear off quickly, to declaring a person dead when it’s not clinically possible – her insights are disturbing and clearly why pro-euthanasia groups do not wish to discuss the reality of the lethal drugs used, and why New Zealand authorities do not disclose what lethal drugs are administered. Her insights from clinical experience are disturbing yet importantly contribute to a deeper understanding of what euthanasia / assisted suicide actually involves.
As New Zealand continues to see an increase of euthanasia deaths and a push for expansion, it is more important than ever that people understand the reality of what is happening when lethal drugs are administered.
With news that a New Zealander was euthanised without proper sedation, the timing of this podcast is important.
Dr Quick notes how the use of sedatives such as propofol are frequently used and even though highly dosed, patients can often wake within 30 minutes of the drugs being administered. Alongside this, sedatives can cause hypoxia which in turn can lead to seizures, unusual breathing patterns, and gasping. As she notes, this is difficult to watch and why in the executions of prisoners, the use of neuromuscular blockers became standard – and now in euthanasia / assisted suicides.
Disturbingly, Dr Quick notes that the frequent use of neuromuscular blockers during euthanasia are designed to keep the family happy, not the patient. Neuromuscular blockers paralyse the patient so that family and others can see no movement at all. As Dr Quick herself notes, neuromuscular blockers “causes the person not to be able to move any voluntary muscles so they can’t move their arms or legs. They can’t breathe, they can’t speak, they can’t even blink.”
Dr Quick says, “I am concerned that someone’s propofol, their anaesthetic has worn off and they are paralysed and they’re unable to speak. They’re unable to move. They’re unable to say, I can feel everything I can.”
“I want to breathe, but I can’t breathe…. so they may be dying in agony. But the protocols are to prevent them from moving so that there aren’t any uncomfortable, like seizures or uncomfortable looking motions for the families to witness. And yet we have no idea what’s going on in the heads of those patients who are taking that long to die.”
She also calls out pro-euthanasia advocates who say that people can be dead within a minute or two. From her clinical experience, she notes that it is impossible to confidently say a person is dead in such a short space of time.
The full podcast and transcript can be found here:
