Suicide 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.

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 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.

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.

Examples

 * Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide in this manner following his implication in the July 20 plot against Hitler. 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, 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.

A defensive strategy by which a target company engages in an activity that might actually ruin the company rather than prevent the hostile takeover. Also known as the "Jonestown Defense."

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.

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