Dayton Students Reject Proposal for Suicide Pills
University of Dayton students have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal for the Roman Catholic school to stock suicide pills so the students could commit suicide in case of nuclear war.
Elections results released last week showed 407 students against the proposal and 59 for it.
Greg Werckman and Mark Slaughter, two members of the school’s student government, proposed earlier this month that the school stock the pills in the event of nuclear war.
They said it would be a symbolic gesture to show the futility of nuclear war.
Werckman said the plan was offered because of the “immense apathy of the student body” regarding nuclear arms.
“We had to find a way to make this hit home,” he said. “The moral responsibilities and problems of having the pill are far outnumbered by the immorality of nuclear war.”
Werckman, a Catholic, said he wouldn’t take such a pill.
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