The San Jose Mercury News reported 25 March 2015:
Right-to-die group offers aid, in secret, as California legislation is debated By Lisa M. Krieger
As legislators prepare to debate a “right to die” bill in the state Capitol, volunteers are already helping suffering people end their lives — surreptitiously, without authorization or official oversight — in bedrooms across California.
“The sneaking around … feels awful. It shouldn’t have to be that way,” said Myriam Coppens, a Santa Cruz resident who has served as a “guide” in the deaths of 16 people with advanced cancer, neurological diseases or incurable illnesses.
“This right is so fundamental to me,” said Coppens, a 74-year-old grandmother, retired nurse, family therapist and volunteer with the Final Exit Network, a right-to-die group that sees its guidance as a legally protected form of free speech. “How can you say no to someone who has a legitimate need — people struggling with crippling pain that cannot be taken care of with medication, or who face unbearable indignities?”
The issue is being fiercely debated across the nation, with critics decrying Final Exit’s efforts as immoral. Although California criminalizes “aiding, advising or encouraging a suicide,” the legal interpretation of those words is cloudy, and the law is rarely enforced. And now there is a mounting effort to change it.
California lawmakers Wednesday will hold their first hearing on Senate Bill 128, legislation that would Continue Reading »
Tags: aid in dying, Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Derek Humphry, euthanasia and assisted death, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, hemlock society, right to die, Self-Deliverance
