PRESS RELEASE May 7, 2012
INDICTMENT OF FINAL EXIT NETWORK VOLUNTEERS IS EXPECTED THIS WEEK
IN HASTINGS, MINNESOTA
HASTINGS, Minnesota — James C. Backstrom, the prosecutor in this
suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, is launching an attack on the right-to-die
movement.
Backstrom has publicly revealed plans to secure grand jury indictments this
Friday (May 11, 2012) against Final Exit Network, one of the nation’s leading
organizations in the movement for the right to death with dignity.
Final Exit Network is an all-volunteer group of senior citizens who provide
information, education and emotional support to its members when they have
made a competent decision to terminate intolerable suffering.
The Dakota County grand jury is investigating the May 30, 2007 suicide of
Doreen Dunn in Apple Valley, Minnesota, in Dakota County. She suffered from
permanent, incurable, painful, debilitating conditions that, her doctor wrote, made her unable to sit or stand for more than 10 minutes at a time, sleep for more than four hours a night, travel, work, or enjoy “any social life.†She herself wrote that she experienced great pain from “any pressure†or “any movement.â€
While it is illegal to assist in a suicide in most states, under its protocols, Final Exit Network carefully does not cross the line into “assisting†in its members’ suicides. Final Exit Network volunteers attend deaths to provide emotional support to their members, but they do not provide the means for their members to hasten their deaths, and they do not physically assist.
The Final Exit Network corporation and seven of its members were charged
in 2009 with assisting in suicides in Arizona and Georgia. Those prosecutions
ended in failure. Nobody from Final Exit Network has ever been adjudicated
guilty of assisting in a suicide.
“We wish County Attorney Backstrom would learn something from the
history of these prosecutions,†said Final Exit Network’s president, Wendell
Stephenson, an Continue Reading »
Tags: assisted death, Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Final Exit Network, Helium Method, physician-assisted suicide, terminal illness
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit Network, Hemlock, People in the News, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
Due to the many interesting questions posed by customers, there is now an extended, revised version of the pamphlet “How to Make Your Own Helium Hood Kit” dealing with these inquiries.
(The technique remains the same.) It can be digitally downloaded (with illustrations) for $7 at the ERGO Bookstore.
—- Derek Humphry, author, “Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying” 3rd edition 2010.
Tags: Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, dignitas switzerland, euthanasia and assisted death, Final Exit, GLADD, helium, Helium Method, hemlock society, Sharlotte Hydorn, terminal illness
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By Derek Humphry
If there is anybody in the right-to-die movement who made a radical difference it was Dr. Peter Goodwin, who brought his life to an end on 11 March 2012 in the presence of his family, using the law he helped to pass. Aged 83, he suffered from an incurable brain illness.
Up until the time when he joined Hemlock and then in l992 chaired the Oregon Right to Die Committee, the American movement campaigned for both voluntary euthanasia (direct injection) and physician-assisted suicide (oral ingestion). Hemlock’s model law, which had been narrowly voted down in California and Washington states, specified both forms of hastened death.
But Peter argued that the law was more likely to pass if it sanctioned only physician-assisted suicide. He persuaded his colleagues that enough doctors were willing to help terminally ill people die but that injecting lethal doses was abhorrent to them. It smacked too much of killing. He argued successfully that a single-purpose law, with the doctor playing a more remote role – prescribing the lethal overdose but not being present — would succeed in Oregon. The final responsibility lay with the patient.
Peter’s next contribution was to attend the annual meeting of the Oregon Medical Society and persuade its members to not oppose the
law when it came up for a vote by citizens’ ballot initiative, now named the Oregon Death With Dignity Act. He failed to get the Medical Society to support the law but at least they agreed to not oppose it.
Voters approved the law in l994 and again in l997. The Oregon- type law has since been passed in Washington state and introduced in England and many other places since. Residents of Oregon who were close to death, and met the law’s requirements, and used it, now number 596 since it became operational in l998.
Medical training
Peter Goodwin was born in London, England, on December 11, 1928, and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. He Continue Reading »
Tags: aid in dying, assisted death, Assisted Suicide, Death With Dignity, Derek Humphry, Oregon law, right to die
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Derek Humphry, Euthanasia, Hemlock, People in the News, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations | 1 Comment »
A valuable web site from the Death With Dignity National Center
outlines the current stages of various ‘right-to-die’ or opposing bills now in front of American legislatures.
Worth visiting at
http://www.deathwithdignity.org/advocates/national/
Tags: aid in dying, assisted death, Assisted Suicide, assisted suicide laws, Death With Dignity, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Final Exit, physician assisted death, right to die
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance | No Comments »
“How to die in Oregon” a video by Peter Richardson
The DVD of this prize-winning documentary is now available to order OUTSIDE the US and Canada. Here’s the link to order:
http://www.filmbaby.com/films/5819
====
To order WITHIN the USA and Canada, go to
the DVD distributor’s webpage:
http://bit.ly/sIn4JK
=====
NOTE: This is not an ERGO project, though we heartily endorse it because of its high quality. I am very briefly in the video giving the history of the progressive side of the movement for the right to die…Derek Humphry
Tags: assisted death, Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Death With Dignity, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Final Exit, hemlock society, Oregon law, physician assisted death, physician-assisted suicide, terminal illness
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Film/TV/Radio, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, Hemlock, Living Will, People in the News, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
Press release
GEORGIA HIGH COURT EXONERATES
FINAL EXIT NETWORK’S VOLUNTEERS
ATLANTA, Georgia, Feb. 6, 2012 — The Supreme Court of Georgia today struck down the state’s assisted-suicide law, abruptly terminating the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s prosecution of four Final Exit Network right-to-die activists.
The state high court agreed with the 3,000-member, national not-for-profit organization’s argument that the Georgia law violated the free speech guarantees of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and the corresponding provision of the Georgia Constitution.
“We are overjoyed for our friends and colleagues who were so unjustly treated like criminals for three years,†said FEN’s president, Wendell Stephenson, a college ethics professor, of Fresno, California. “These are good and compassionate people who did not break any laws.â€
FEN’s former president, Ted Goodwin, who turns 66 next week, of suburban Atlanta and Punta Gorda, Florida; its former medical director, Lawrence D. Egbert, 84, of Baltimore; a case coordinator, Nicholas A. Sheridan, 62, of Baltimore; and an “exit guide,†Claire H. Blehr, 79, of suburban Atlanta, had each been free on $60,000 bail since their arrest on February 25, 2009. The case never came to trial.
FEN and its volunteers argued that the Georgia law prohibited Continue Reading »
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, People in the News, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
After researching the development and use of the helium self-deliverance method for five years as NuTech’s unofficial historian, I can assure readers of this blog of two things with certainty:
1. The “party balloon kit” helium tanks contain 100.00% helium, with no other gases.
2. Misstatements to the contrary have no basis whatsoever in fact, and no “adulterated” tank has ever been found or tested anywhere in the world, to the best of my research knowledge.
If the manufacturer (chiefly Worthington Industries, who sells the product worldwide) wanted to add any amount of other gas (such as oxygen or nitrogen) to the contents of the helium tank, it would have to be clearly marked on the packaging, for to adulterate the gas in any way without obvious labeling would be a violation of U.S. and foreign law.
No state or nation has ever been proven to have done so. None.
Let’s put this issue to rest. The “party balloon” helium kits contain 100% helium, period. For a complete description of the origin, development, and use of the “helium system” of self-deliverance, please see Chapter 6, “Robbing Death of Its Sting,” from my forthcoming book, “In Search of Gentle Death: The Fight for your Right to Die With Dignity,” which will be available for sale in late April 2012. The release date of the book will be announced here. — Richard N. Cote’ / dickcote@earthlink.net
(NuTech is short for New Technology in Self-Deliverance from a terminal illness. This nonprofit group developed the helium hood method.)
Tags: choice in dying, Death With Dignity, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, helium, Helium Method, helium suicide, hemlock society, Self-Deliverance
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Books, death, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, GLADD, Hemlock, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 1 Comment »
Re: United States v. Sharlotte Hydorn
Victims Rights and Restitution Act
If you are one of those persons who recently received a ‘victim letter’ from the US Department of Justice in connection with Ms Sharlotte Hydorn, of California, who used to supply helium hood kits upon request, I suggest that you respond to it this way:
Say quite firmly (if that is your view) that you are not a “victim,” and you feel Sharlotte was providing a great public service. You should explain why you ordered an exit hood.
If your check was not cashed, you should make a point of saying that. You should urge that Sharlotte be given no fine and no sentence.
Sharlotte has agreed to plead guilty on March 15 to one charge of failing to submit a tax return. Her operation, GLADD, started in 2007, was closed down in May by an FBI raid.
If you live in the San Diego area, you might wish to attend the court hearing MARCH 15 at 1:30 p.m. before Magistrate Judge Bernard G. Skomal.
This is our chance to show support for a gallant lady whose only fault (in my view) was to forget her tax liabilities in the crush to supply single-handedly the helium hood kits.
— Derek Humphry, Oregon
PS You can order the pamphlet “How to Make Your Own Helium Hood Kit’ at the ERGO Bookstore www.finalexit.org/ergo-store
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Tags: Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Death With Dignity, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, GLADD, Hemlock, right to die, Sharlotte Hydorn
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit, GLADD, Opinion Pieces, People in the News, Politics/Law, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 1 Comment »
At least two-thirds of Canadians support assisted suicide, according to a Forum Research poll for the National Post.
The poll found 67 per cent of Canadians favor legalizing doctor-assisted suicide of terminally ill patients. In Ontario only 60 per cent of residents agreed.
The poll shows support is highest among men and respondents under the age of 65.
The survey comes as the B.C. Supreme Court considers the case of a woman with Lou Gehrig’s disease, who is fighting for the right to end her life with a doctor’s help.
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Tags: Assisted Suicide, assisted suicide laws, choice in dying, Death With Dignity, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Final Exit, hemlock society, right to die
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, Hemlock, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News | No Comments »
End-of-year appeal by ERGO
I know everybody is currently asking you for money, and these are difficult times, but if you care about the right to choose to die please think of ERGO (Euthanasia Research & Guidance Org) in your gift-giving this month.
We are a tiny organization but still have weighty outgoings concerning technical support, computer and tax fees, telephone and postage expenses, utilities and so on.
Small though it is, ERGO reaches out to the world through its literature, two web sites, blog and the news list. We do media briefings and supply students with background information for their projects.
If you saw the prize-winning video documentary on HBO, “How To Die In Oregon†you will have noticed ERGO’s cameo appearance giving the historical background to the American modern right-to-die movement. News and context are what ERGO supplies.
ERGO, founded in l993, is a nonprofit, tax exempt, tax deductible organization. To make a gift, send check to ERGO, 24829 Norris Lane, Junction City, Oregon 97448.
Easier perhaps to make your contribution over the internet by going to www.finalexit.org/ergo-store and clicking in the bottom icon “Contribute to ERGOâ€
Thank you. Enjoy your holidays. — Derek Humphry, president
ergo@finalexit.org 8 December 2011
Tags: Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, helium, hemlock society, physician-assisted suicide, Self-Deliverance, terminal illness
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
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