NO HELIUM HOOD KITS MAY BE SOLD TO OREGON
— GLADD CLOSED DOWN – AT LEAST TEMPORARILY
The Oregon Senate voted unanimously for the second time Thursday to adopt SB 376, which outlaws the selling of “any substance or object, that is capable of causing death†to another person with the expectation that it will be used to assist that person to commit suicide. The Governor still has to sign it.
The immediate effect of the new Oregon law is to prohibit the sale of a particular type of suicide kit manufactured and sold via mail order by a small company, The GLADD Group in Southern California. Owner Sharlotte Hydorn, 91, said that she is “not against Oregon passing its law — it’s a wonderful country.â€
Hydorn markets her suicide kit, which consists of a plastic bag and plastic tubing intended to be connected to helium tankS, throughout the United States as well as internationally, including Canada, England, Brazil, Israel and Singapore, she said.
However, at the moment her business is closed, following a raid by the FBI on May 25, during which her computer system, sewing machines and materials for making and mailing the suicide kits were confiscated.
Tags: Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Death With Dignity, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, GLADD, helium, Helium Method, right to die
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit, GLADD, Hemlock, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News | 3 Comments »
RE POLICE VISITS TO PERSONS WHO WERE CUSTOMERS OF GLADD
The purpose of the police or sheriff making ‘wellness visits’ is to find out if a person has taken their life, or intending to. Such visits are lawful under US health laws; they are not criminal inquiries because suicide is not a crime.
A person does not have to let them indoors unless they have a valid search warrant. Advisable just pleasantly to assure them in the doorway that everything is fine, thank you, and suicide is not currently contemplated — that connecting with GLADD was merely a precaution against a FUTURE unbearable terminal illness.
The FBI and police seem not to understand that many thoughtful people plan well in advance — while still healthy –against a future terminal or hopeless illness. (Why else has “Final Exit” sold over a million copies?)
In the more than ten cases reported to me so far (there are probably many more) the wellness visits have ended satisfactorily once the law enforcement people have been assured that no hasty self-deliverance is contemplated.
One man tells me that he wrote a letter of support to Sharlotte Hydorn after the 25 May FBI raid which closed her operation down, and within days had the ‘wellness police’ at his door. He had ordered or paid nothing, just sympathized.
This GLADD imbroglio has happened because, while the helium hood kit was developed by me and others in 2001 exclusively as a choice for terminal, competent adults, it turned out that many persons who are mentally troubled, or clinically depressed, spotted this different method of suicide and began to order the kits. This was by no means intended. I regret this development.
I wonder why gunshops are not similarly under attack, as most suicidal American men shoot themselves?
Derek Humphry
(jnlst & author) 15 June 2011
Tags: Assisted Suicide, assisted suicide laws, choice in dying, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, GLADD, helium, Helium Method, right to die, Self-Deliverance
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Dead, death, Derek Humphry, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, Hemlock, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 4 Comments »
The FBI is asking police throughout America to check up on people who have recently ordered helium hood kits from GLADD in southern California, run by Sharlotte Hydorn. So far we know of six cases. These are what the cops call ‘wellness checks’ — actually to see if the person has [or about to] kill themselves.
So if you ordered from GLADD don’t be surprised to get a police visit. Tell them you are fine, thank you, and decline their offer to be taken to a therapist (as has happened).
Tell this blog if you get such a visit from law enforcement.
Tags: Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Derek Humphry, euthanasia and assisted death, GLADD, Helium Method, helium suicide, physician assisted death, physician-assisted suicide, Self-Deliverance, Sharlotte Hydorn, terminal illness
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, Hemlock, People in the News, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 4 Comments »
ALERT – a stranger at your door?
If you purchased or ordered a helium hood kit from the GLADD Group in southern California, it is possible that police will call to check up on you shortly.
Local police, under FBI direction, have already visited two women (in Hillsboro, Oregon, and in Los Angeles) and questioned them about their health and circumstances. Each woman had recently placed an order for a helium hood kit but not received it. (Many were confiscated in the FBI raid on Sharlotte Hydorn’s home on 25 May. She made them on her sewing machine – confiscated – and recorded on her computer hard drive, also seized.)
A lawyer friendly to the right-to-die movement tells ERGO:
quote
“The cops do not need a warrant to do a mental health check. If they have information that a person is a serious and imminent threat to herself or others, it is legal for them to visit, speak, and make such checks as are necessary and appropriate to make sure the person is not a serious and imminent threat to herself or others. From the information about the Los Angeles visit, and the other one in Oregon, there is no indication they are asking any questions intended to gather information to prosecute Sharlotte Hydorn or anyone else. They don’t need any more information from these “victims” to prosecute Hydorn.
“If the LA woman had the presence of mind to refuse to let the cops into her home, it’s a question whether they could have entered over her objection. I doubt it. But it’s important to remember that, if the cops are challenged, their answer will be that everything they did was consensual. They asked if she would let them in; she let them in; they asked her questions; she answered them.
“When they walked around, looked at stuff, opened the refrigerator door, she did not object. When people let cops in, let them look around, or answer their questions voluntarily, there is no violation of anybody’s rights.
“The police can stop by the home of anybody in America, ask to come in, ask questions, and so forth, and it violates nobody’s rights.” unquote
THEREFORE, if you ordered a kit from GLADD don’t be surprised if you
get a call from local law enforcement. If you are visited, maybe inform ERGO at ergo@finalexit.org
—- Derek Humphry, Junction City, OR journalist & author 06.12.11
—————————————————————————–
Tags: Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Derek Humphry, euthanasia and assisted death, GLADD, helium, Helium Method, right to die, Sharlotte Hydorn, terminal illness
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Derek Humphry, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, People in the News, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 1 Comment »
From Derek Humphry (journalist & author)
Important alert re GLADD
For those who might have missed it, GLADD Group no longer can supply a
helium hood kit. An FBI raid on 25 May 2011 shut the operation in
Southern California down, seizing all documentation, orders, checks,
materials, hard-drive and the sewing machine.
FBI agents also went to the local Post Office and seized 15 boxed kits
which were awaiting transit.
FBI now knows from the confiscated computer hard-drive the names and
addresses of all persons who ordered the kit. It is possible that they
may try to follow up as they endeavour to gather evidence for possible
criminal prosecutions against SHARLOTTE HYDORN, the
91-year-old woman who ran GLADD as a service to humanity from her home.
Should the FBI call on you fishing for evidence against her, say nothing
to them except in the presence of your lawyer. That is your right. Be
firm.
People who placed orders with GLADD in the last six weeks will have to
wait a long time for return of their money……if ever. (There is no financial, business or other connection between ERGO and GLADD — just a common goal to help people.)
Meantime, people who want bags will have to work themselves with the DIY
section of my FINAL EXIT book, pages 132-138. It is not hard to make
the kit. And YouTube has some excellent guidance videos.
>——-Derek Humphry (writer) president, ERGO
www.finalexit.org ergo@finalexit.org
Tags: assisted death, Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Death With Dignity, Derek Humphry, GLADD, helium, Helium Method, hemlock society
Posted in Assisted dying, Books, Dead, death, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 4 Comments »
With a search warrant, an FBI team raided the home in So.California of Shylotte Hydorn, manufacter of the helium hood kits which are sold worldwide under the name of GLADD.
They confiscated her computer, her materials and her sewing machine.
She was warned of possible charges.
Thus for the time being GLADD will not be supplying kits
Tags: GLADD assisted suicide helium hood kits
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Euthanasia, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | 1 Comment »
Residents in Zurich were asked on Sunday 04.15.11 to decide whether assisted suicide should be banned, either for Swiss nationals or non-residents.
Some 85% of the 278,000 votes cast opposed the ban on assisted suicide and 78% opposed outlawing it for foreigners, Zurich authorities said.
This referendum was in Zurich only, but is likely to be an indication of the feeling in the whole country. People from many countries go to Zurich for help with self-deliverance, about 150 from Britain.
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Politics/Law, right to die, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
The Oregon state Senate made it a felony Monday for companies to sell suicide kits to Oregonians. The vote was unanimous. The bill now heads to the House.
Senator Floyd Prozanski says people charged under this law could be brought to Oregon to face their charges.
The bill was introduced after a 29-year-old Eugene man took his own life using a suicide kit he purchased online for $60.
The proposed legislation also doesn’t conflict with the state’s Death with Dignity Act, which allows physical assisted suicide in certain circumstances.
………..
Details on how to make such a kit have been in the book ‘Final Exit’ for the last ten years. Some people prefer to buy ‘off-the-shelf’ from a group in California called “GLADD’.
whose mailing address is 3755 Avocado Blvd, # 166, La Mesa, CA
91941. Cost is $60. Sent USPS
discreetly. No phone/internet orders.
Tags: Deliverance, Derek Humphry, ERGO, Final Exit, Final Exit book, helium, helium hood kits, Hemlock, Self-Deliverance, suicide, terminal illness
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, Hemlock, People in the News, Politics/Law, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
FOR THE RECORD
Trial of the volunteers of the Final Exit Network in the USA
A jury trial was held in Phoenix, Arizona during April 2011 concerning the death of Jana Van Voorhis, age 56, on April 12, 2007. She had chosen to die with the helium hood method with guides from the Final Exit Network in attendance. The accused and the verdicts were:
Laurence M. Egbert MD, aged 82, Baltimore, MD., former F E N medical director. Charge: conspiracy to commit manslaughter by aiding in a suicide. Plea: Not guilty. Verdict: Not guilty.
Wye Hale-Rowe, Ann Arbor MI, aged 82, volunteer helper. Charge: manslaughter. Pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, facilitation to commit manslaughter, because of poor health. Sentence: Probation.
Franklin R. Langsner, aged 86, Scottsdale, AZ, volunteer helper. Charge: manslaughter by aiding in a suicide and with conspiracy. Plea: Not guilty. Verdict: Hung jury. Jury voted 7 to 1 to acquit him of conspiracy, and 4-3 (1 abstention) to acquit him of aiding in a suicide. Retrial possible.
Roberta Massey, aged 65, Cherry Hill, NJ, former case coordinator. Conspiracy to commit manslaughter. Pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of facilitation to commit manslaughter because of poor health. Sentence: probation.
Length of trial: ten days. Ended 21 April 2011 Jury deliberation: three days.
27 April 2011 update Source: ERGO
Tags: Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Euthanasia, euthanasia and assisted death, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, helium, Helium Method
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, death, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Suicide (rational) | No Comments »
Final Exit Network doctor found not guilty
A jury found the medical director of Final Exit Network, a national right-to-die group, innocent of conspiring to assist in a suicide, but could not reach a verdict as to one of the organization’s “exit guides.â€
The Maricopa County Superior Court jury deliberated from Tuesday through Thursday before finding Dr. Lawrence D. Egbert, 83, of Baltimore, the Network’s volunteer medical director, not guilty of conspiracy to commit manslaughter by aiding in a suicide.
The eight-member jury could not reach a unanimous verdict as to Franklin R. Langsner, 86, a suburban Phoenix resident and “exit guide†for the Network, who was charged with manslaughter by aiding in a suicide and with conspiracy. The jury voted 7 to 1 to acquit Langsner of conspiracy, and 4-4 to acquit him of aiding in a suicide.
Derek Humphry, founder of the Hemlock Society USA and author of ‘Final Exit,‘ said: “These results are excellent news. They mark a significant turning point in the long march to achieve everybody’s right to choose to die.”
Tags: assisted death, Assisted Suicide, choice in dying, Derek Humphry, Dignitas, Euthanasia, Final Exit Network, Helium Method, hemlock society
Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Books, death, Derek Humphry, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, People in the News, Politics/Law, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations | No Comments »
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