First: Ted Goodwin, the former president (resigned Feb 23, 2009) of the Final Exit Network became the Vice-President of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies at their bi-annual conference in Paris in 2008. Goodwin is scheduled to become the President of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies at their conference in 2010. Compassion & Choices is a member of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.Second: Derek Humphrey founded the Final Exit Network and the Hemlock Society. Hemlock Society was one of the large groups that amalgamated to form Compassion & Choices.
Third: Compassion & Choices has its own suicide support service called the: Client Support Program. The Client Support Program has the same aims as the Final Exit Network.
I attended the World Federation of Right to Die Societies bi-annual Conference in Toronto (Sept 2006).
During a presentation about the Client Support Program - A Client Support Program volunteer stated that he had been involved in his first hastened death a few weeks earlier (before the conference) and he felt that it was the "right thing to do." Another Client Support Program volunteer stated that she became a volunteer because she wants to hasten her own death and thought that her involvement was a safety net for her own death. A Client Support Program - regional co-ordinator stated that volunteers are trained to know the law in order to avoid prosecution. The training program is designed to protect the volunteer from prosecution, but in the case of a charge, the training should enable them to be acquitted. She said: 'If you understand the law you can avoid conviction.'
The Final Exit Network also claims to be providing "Aid in Dying" which is a euphemism for assisted suicide, and like the Client Support Program, they claim to only act in support of a suicide and not actually assist the suicide.
It is interesting that Goodwin allegedly showed an investigator how he holds the hands of the client, making it impossible for the client to remove the "Exit Bag". This is the same Goodwin who is a mainstream leader of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.
The Final Exit Network and the Compassion & Choices Client Support Program have the same purpose and are designed to do the same thing.
2 comments:
Compassion & Choices is an organization directed to the education of America on the moral right for proplr with terminal illness to Die with Dignity. The State of Washington voters cast a majority vote for its Death With Dignity Law. Montana's supreme court upheld the moral right to die with dignity for its residents. California enacted the terminal patients Right to Know End-ofLife Optins. In Octoper the Ameican Public Health Association in support of the long established Right to Die Statytes. American College of Legal Medicine adopted a similar policy that same month. Compasion and Aid for the terminally ill WILL BE THE NATIONAL CONSENSUS in this decade.
If assisted suicide becomes the consensus position in North America in this decade, then people with disabilities and other vulnerable people, including people who experience depression need to be very concerned.
The way the Oregon law, the Washington law, the no-safeguards in Montana, etc are developed are a recipe for elder abuse.
The people who have the most to gain by the death are the ones who are directly involved with the decisions.
Further, the right to die will become a duty to die for the more vulnerable. Many people will fear going to a doctor when they need medical care.
Finally, can you truly trust every physician. I can't. Now you want to give them the power to take your life?
Our society needs to care for people not kill them.
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