Suicide pill

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This article is about the literal meaning. For the use in economics, see Poison pill.

A suicide pill (also known as an L-pill or lethal pill) is a pill, capsule, ampoule or tablet containing a fatally poisonous substance that a person ingests deliberately in order to quickly cause their own death. This is done in order to avoid an imminent and far more unpleasant death (such as through torture) or to ensure that they cannot be interrogated and leak sensitive information. As a result, lethal pills have important psychological value to persons carrying out missions with a high risk of capture and interrogation. Their main advantage is that whereas a concealed pistol will immediately be confiscated when someone is overpowered and searched, a small pill more easily evades detection.

1 Description
2 Examples
3 Other uses
4 References
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] Description

Traditionally, lethal pills are oval capsules, approximately the size of a pea, comprised of a thin-walled glass ampoule covered in brown rubber (to protect against accidental breakage) and filled with a concentrated solution of potassium cyanide. It is important to note that purpose-made lethal pills (of the rubber-coated type) are never swallowed whole. Instead, they are first crushed between the user's molars to release the fast-acting poison contained within. Brain death occurs within minutes and the heartbeat stops shortly after. A suicide pill swallowed without first being crushed would pass harmlessly through the digestive tract.

The concept of the suicide pill does not limit itself to pills, but rather may lend itself in a colloquial manner to anything that has fatal consequences when deliberately taken or done.

The Central Intelligence Agency began experimenting with the drug saxitoxin as a suicide pill in the 1950s, and it was rumored that they provided it to American U-2 pilots. Saxitoxin is derived from marine plankton and is a thousand times more potent than the nerve gas sarin. It can stifle breathing and cause death in 10 seconds.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon ordered the CIA to destroy its entire stock of saxitoxin, painstakingly collected over several years, as part of the U.S. commitment in accordance with the United Nations agreement on biological weapons.

[edit] Examples

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide in this manner following his implication in the July 20 plot against Hitler.^[1] Additionally, Eva Braun and a number of Nazi war criminals such as Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering are known to have committed suicide using lethal pills containing a solution of cyanide salts.

William Sterling Parsons and several other crew members of the B29 Superfortress bombers sent to drop atomic bombs on Japan in World War II were issued with lethal pills[1], though all aircraft returned safely and none of the pills were used. This was in case they were captured and then tortured by the Kempeitai to reveal classified information regarding atomic weapons.

[edit] Other uses

In economics, a suicide pill is a form of risk arbitrage used by corporations to thwart hostile takeover attempts. As an extreme version of the poison pill defense, this crippling provision refers to any technique used by a target firm in which takeover protection could result in self-destruction.^{[citation needed]}

Variations of the suicide pill include the Jonestown Defense, Scorched Earth defense, and Golden Parachute.