These people had uremia, a disease due to the failure of the kidneys, and expressed their unbearable suffering and an unwillingness to burden their families any more.
Dwindling attendance and peoples unwillingness to volunteer their help for the event brought about councils decision to suspend the event for the time being.
Of course, photographs are nothing if not the product of intervening hands; but they play upon our credulity, our childlike unwillingness to disbelieve.