Mother Sues Amazon After Daughter Commits Suicide With Cyanide Purchased On The Website
A mother is suing Amazon after her 20-year-old daughter committed suicide using cyanide salts she purchased on the website. The cyanide was offered for sale by the retail giant despite the fact that soluble cyanide salts are labeled in the U.S. for being a hazardous and lethal substance. The University of Pennsylvania student, Arya Singh, purchased the cyanide salts in December of 2012 from a vendor located in Thailand. Two months later, she opened the packet and ingested the salts, dying from cyanide poisoning. Now her mother is suing Amazon, the Thailand vendor and the University of Pennsylvania for her daughter’s death.
The Daily Mail reports that 20-year-old Arya Singh attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she would be sexually assaulted in her freshman dorm and eventually commit suicide. Singh’s mother, Sujata Singh, says that her daughter was sexually assaulted in the dorm and immediately reported it to the resident advisor, filed a report with the university and also the Philadelphia police. However, two weeks later, Arya learned that no charges would be brought against her alleged attacker, and the suspect would remain in the same dorm. Sujata says that her daughter was under severe emotional distress from the incident, and the suspect remaining in the building. Therefore, Arya was referred to campus counseling.
The counselor found that she was severely depressed and referred her to CAPS to see a therapist. However, Sujata claims that when her daughter went to make an appointment with the therapist, the schedule was full and no one followed up with her for a different appointment time. Therefore, Sujata says her daughter spiraled out of control. The student was not allowed to enroll in spring courses as she was under academic investigation. Since she was not enrolled in classes, Arya was asked to vacate the dormitory. Instead of packing up her stuff, Arya pulled out the small envelope of cyanide that she purchased from Amazon and ingested it. The student would later be found deceased in the room from cyanide poisoning.
The girl’s mother is suing the university for failing to provide Arya with the support she needed following the sexual assault along with Amazon for allowing the sell of an illegal substance, cyanide, on its website. The vendor from Thailand is also listed as a defendant in the lawsuit.
According to NJ.com, shortly after Arya purchased her cyanide off of Amazon, the company halted all sale of the questionable substance. In fact, Amazon stopped allowing the selling of cyanide just six days before Arya Singh committed suicide via the dangerous substance. The lawsuit notes that 51 cyanide products were sold through Amazon in the U.S. prior to Singh buying the poison, 11 of those purchases led to the buyer’s death.
Though cyanide is labeled as dangerous and fatal, there’s currently nothing illegal about buying cyanide, as it is also used as a rat poison and for other uses. Therefore, do you think Amazon should be held liable for the wrongful death of Arya Singh? Was the retail giant neglectful for allowing vendors to sell cyanide on their website?
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