![]() Source: HRO.org (info) Eight cancer sufferers committed suicide in Moscow in the last two weeks Kasparov.ru reported on 26th March 2014, citing Interfax. It appears that since mid-March in various districts of the capital there have been eight cases of suicides among people suffering various forms of cancer. “People don’t want to torment themselves or those around them. It is their variation of euthanasia,” Leonid Pechatnikov, deputy mayor of Moscow for social issues, commented on the situation. Leonid Pechatnikov also added that, “No complaints had been made to medical organisations in any of the cases”. From 1st July 2013 new rules on the use of medicines containing narcotic substances came into effect. The Ministry of Health established a new procedure for their prescription and distribution, a new layout of forms and new rules of accounting and book keeping. These rules have significantly complicated the possibility of receiving pain-killing drugs, including for those suffering from cancer. The biggest scandal of recent date connected with problems of the distribution of medicines was when a rear-admiral suffering from cancer who had received many decorations and awards committed suicide because he was refused a prescription for pain-killing drugs. It also became public knowledge that he had left a note in which he asked “don’t blame anyone except the Ministry of Health and the Government”. Translated by Elisabth Wright |
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