Final Exit Network trial begins Monday Two of the four criminal charges pending against Final Exit Network, Inc. in Hastings, Minnesota were dismissed Friday morning. Before the dismissal, the not-for-profit corporation was charged with two felonies: assisting in a “suicide,” and “aiding and abetting” to assist in a “suicide”; and two “gross” misdemeanors, interfering with […]
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Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Derek Humphry, Euthanasia, Final Exit Network, Oregon law, physician-assisted suicide, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations on Apr 17th, 2015
More than a dozen states, plus the District of Columbia, are considering physician-assisted dying legislation this year. The laws would allow mentally fit, terminally ill patients age 18 and older, whose doctors say they have six months or less to live, to request lethal drugs. The prescribing doctors need not be present when the fatal […]
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Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Books, Derek Humphry, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, Oregon law, People in the News, physician-assisted suicide, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Self-Deliverance, Suicide (rational) on Mar 29th, 2015
TWO WOMEN PIONEERS MAKING THE DIFFERENCE Forty years ago today Jean Humphry used physician-assisted suicide to end her life at age 42. She was in an advanced stage of cancer metastasized from breast cancer two years earlier. She fought to live, had three chemotherapies, and good pain control from caring doctors. A few months earlier, […]
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Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Derek Humphry, Euthanasia, Final Exit, physician-assisted suicide, Politics/Law, Publications/InternetMedia, right to die, RTD News, Self-Deliverance, Self-directed death on Jan 27th, 2015
Interested in more news on the right-to-die issue? ERGO circulates on a regular basis an electronic newslist with news from around the world. It is moderated by Derek Humphry. To subscribe (free) Click here
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Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Final Exit, Hemlock, People in the News, physician-assisted suicide, right to die, RTD News, RTD Organizations, Suicide (rational) on Jan 13th, 2015
There is an interesting (and lengthy) book review by Marcia Angell in the New York Review of Books, January 8, 2015, issue and it is well worth reading. Here is a small extract: “There is no doubt in my mind that hospice is the best option for helping dying patients during their last months, but […]
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Posted in Assisted dying, Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia, exit bag, Final Exit, Final Exit Network, People in the News, physician-assisted suicide, right to die, RTD Organizations, Suicide (rational) on Dec 31st, 2014
Dr Lawrence D. Egbert, 87, has lost the Maryland medical license he had held for more than 60 years after a disciplinary panel for the Maryland Board of Physicians found that he had engaged in “unprofessional conduct†while working as the medical director for the Final Exit Network, which offers aid to people “who are […]
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Public support for choice in dying legislation has grown even stronger in the days since the planned death of 29-year-old brain cancer patient Brittany Maynard, a new HealthDay/Harris Poll has found. An overwhelming 74 percent of American adults now believe that terminally ill patients who are in great pain should have the right to end […]
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A state senator wants to make New York the fifth state to allow assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Democrat Brad Hoylman said his proposed law would permit doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill adults who want to take their own lives. In a memo seeking co-sponsors, Hoylman cited the case of Brittany […]
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A bill legalizing physician-assisted death for terminally ill patients in Colorado is being drafted and would probably be introduced later this year. Roland Halpern, the regional director of Compassion and Choices in Denver, said surveys show that 90 percent of people ages 65 and older want to die at home but only 24 percent have […]
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Oregon’s first-in-the-nation Death with Dignity law turned 20 this month, establishing a substantial record of who dies and why. As of last year, 1,173 Oregonians have qualified for lethal prescriptions, and 752 patients have used them to end their lives. The typical participant was white, well-educated, over 65 years old and suffering from terminal cancer. […]
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