The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has applauded phase two clinical trials for a new painkiller named Tectin, which is derived from the pufferfish, that are being carried out in cancer centres across Canada.
Current clinical trials are being done on late-stage cancer patients who are experiencing uncontrolled pain and who have not undergone chemotherapy during the past month.
Alex Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, explained his group’s interest in the painkiller in an interview with Lifesite.
“The fear of experiencing uncontrolled pain is cited as the most important reason that people support legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide. When pain is controlled, dying people seem more concerned about living their final days, rather than having control over the time and place of their death.”
Another important consideration for the Coalition is that it is believed Tectin does not have the possible but unintentional side-effect of hastening or causing death.
High dosages of morphine, in some circumstances, can have a “double effect” of relieving severe pain but also eventually killing the patient when not properly administered. The amount of Tectin that is required to kill a patient would be astronomical.
Tectin was developed in China for many uses and has been extensively tested in that country.
Chinese clinical tests that were done on cancer patients, whose pain was not relieved by traditional analgesics, found that all of the participants experienced nearly total pain relief within five to 30 minutes, that the pain continued to be relieved and that there were few side effects.
