In the Last Ten Years, at Least Nine U.S. States Have Strengthened Their Laws Against Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia

Margaret Dore published this list of legislative and judicial victories to counter the media narrative that the United States is legalizing assisted suicide.

Alabama Governor, Kay Ivy

In the last ten years, at least nine states have strengthened their laws against assisted suicide/euthanasia. They are (alphabetical): 

1. Alabama: In 2017, Alabama enacted the Assisted Suicide Ban Act; 
2. Arizona: In 2014, Arizona strengthened its law against assisted suicide. 
3. Georgia: In 2012, Georgia strengthened its law against assisted suicide. 
4. Idaho: On April 5, 2011, Idaho strengthened its law against assisted suicide. 
5. Louisiana: In 2012, Louisiana strengthened its assisted suicide/euthanasia ban. 
6. New Mexico: In 2016, the New Mexico Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision recognizing a right to physician aid in dying, meaning physician assisted suicide. Physician-assisted suicide is no longer legal in New Mexico. See Morris v. Brandenburg, 376 P.3d 836 (2016). 
7. Ohio: In 2017, Ohio strengthened its law against assisted suicide. See http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/3795 
8. South Dakota: In 2017, the South Dakota Legislature passed Concurrent Resolution 11, opposing physician-assisted suicide. See Bill History. 
9. Utah: In 2018, Utah amended its manslaughter statute to include assisted suicide. For more information, see https://le.utah.gov/~2018/bills/static/HB0086.html and click “status.”

The media promotes the legalization of assisted suicide but it ignores the success in preventing euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Ohio Governor signs bill making assisted suicide a felony.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Ohio Governor Kasich

Great news: Yesterday, Ohio Governor Kasich signed Bill HB 470 making Ohio the fifth state in the past few years to strengthen protections in law from assisted suicide, a bill that makes assisted suicide a felony.

EPC-USA was very pleased with the outcome of the bill, even though our advisory role was small.

The Ohio Senate passed HB 470, nearly unanimously, on Thursday December 8. HB 470 passed in the Ohio House last May by a vote of 92 - 5.

Jeremy Pelzer, reported for Cleveland.com  on November 7 before the vote:

House Bill 470 ... would make knowingly assisting in a suicide a third-degree felony in Ohio, punishable by up to five years in prison. 

Currently, Ohio law only permits a court to issue an injunction against anyone helping other people to kill themselves. 

If the Senate passes the bill on Thursday - expected to be the last day of the legislative session - it would head to Gov. John Kasich for his signature. The measure passed the Ohio House 92-5 last May. 

State Sen. Bill Seitz, the Cincinnati Republican who authored HB 470, said the legislation mirrors Michigan's 1998 ban on assisted suicide, which was passed in response to Dr. Jack Kevorkian's well-publicized campaign.

In the past few years Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, and Arizona have passed bills to strengthen protection from assisted suicide.

Great News: Minnesota appeals court upheld conviction for assisted suicide.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Minnesota appeals court upheld the conviction of the Final Exit Network in the assisted suicide death of Doreen Dunn who died May 30, 2007.

On May 14, 2015, the Final Exit Network was found guilty, by a jury, of assisted suicide and the group was sentenced on August 24, 2015.

During the trial, the Lacrosse Tribune reported:

Dakota County prosecutor Elizabeth Swank told jurors that the evidence showed that two members of Final Exit Network went to Dunn's home in Apple Valley to assist her suicide. They then removed the equipment that she used for suicide so that it appeared she had died of natural causes. 

Dunn's husband of 29 years arrived home on May 30, 2007, to find her dead on the couch. Swank said Dunn had a blanket pulled up to her neck with her hands folded on her chest. 

Swank said that despite Dunn's pain and depression, she had no life-threatening illness and her family was puzzled by her death. There were good things happening in her life: Her daughter who had been in Africa for about a year was coming home the next day and her son's fiancee was scheduled to give birth that week. However, her husband was also planning to move out, the prosecutor said.

The Star Tribune reported at the sentencing:

During the trial, prosecutors argued that the group gave Doreen Dunn, of Apple Valley, a “blueprint” for ending her life and made efforts to conceal her suicide from family and authorities by removing the equipment she used. 

Criminal cases against Final Exit Network coordinator Roberta Massey, of Bear, Del., and the group’s medical director, Lawrence Egbert, 87, of Baltimore, are still pending. 

Another defendant, Jerry Dincin, died and charges against Thomas Goodwin were dismissed in 2013. 

Robert Rivas, the lawyer for the assisted suicide group, did not dispute that Jerry Dincin and Larry Egbert were present at Dunn's death, but argued that they didn't assist her suicide.

The Final Exit Network has been prosecuted in several assisted suicide cases. In Georgia, John Celmer, who was depressed after recovering from cancer, died by suicide with the assistance of the Final Exit Network. Celmer's widow Susan Celmer, testified against the Final Exit Network. The Final Exit Network assists the suicide of people at the most vulnerable time of their life. Last year Larry Egbert, the medical director for the Final Exit Network, lost his medical license in Maryland.

Alabama bill would clarify protections in law from assisted suicide.

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

In 2015, 26 US states are debating bills to legalize assisted suicide.

Nearly every US state have laws that specifically protect people from assisted suicide. A few states do not have specific statutes protecting people from assisted suicide, but rather prohibit assisted suicide based on common law.

In Alabama, Rep Arnold Mooney is planning to introduce a bill to clarify protections in law from assisted suicide. The Alabama media reported that:

The Assisted Suicide Ban Act would prohibit a physician or other health care provider to help a person die by prescribing a drug or by other means, he said. 

Assisted suicide is prohibited under Alabama common law due to prior court decisions on the issue. Forty-three states have laws on the books prohibiting physician-assisted suicide.

Rep Mooney stated:

"The state has an interest in protecting vulnerable groups, including the impoverished, the elderly, and disabled persons from abuse, neglect and mistakes," 

"A ban on assisted suicide reflects and reinforces our belief that the lives of those in vulnerable groups are no less valued than the lives of the young and healthy."

In the past few years, Georgia and Arizona passed bills to clarify protections in law from assisted suicide.

America's Dr Death loses medical license.

By Alex Schadenberg
International Chair - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Lawrence Egbert

Lawrence Egbert, a leader of the Final Exit Network, has lost his medical license in Maryland.

After a two year review, the Maryland Board of Physicians revoked his medical license after deciding that Egbert's actions were unethical and illegal. Egbert has said that he plans to appeal.

An article in the Baltimore Sun stated:

A Baltimore anesthesiologist who made national news as "The New Doctor Death" held six elderly Marylanders' hands as they asphyxiated themselves with helium and covered up the suicides after they died, according to a state order filed this month stripping him of his medical license. 

Notice that Egbert held their hands to ensure that they couldn't remove the asphyxiation bag. He should have been charged with homicide, not assisted suicide. The article continued:

The suicides are among nearly 300 Lawrence D. Egbert said he helped arrange across the country as an "exit guide" for right-to-die group Final Exit Network. He and several colleagues were arrested in 2009 amid an undercover investigation in Georgia, but he avoided any punishment there or in another case in Arizona. He awaits trial for assisting in a suicide in Minnesota.

Stephen Drake

Stephen Drake, an expert on the Final Exit Network and the research analyst for the disability rights group Not Dead Yet told the Baltimore Sun:

"Revocation of his medical license is a good thing and long overdue,"

Egbert was first charged by the Maryland board with unprofessional conduct in 2012. The Maryland Board were tipped off by a Baltimore Sun article in which he said he had assisted in a handful of suicides in Maryland as medical director of the Final Exit Network. Newsweek dubbed him "The New Doctor Death" in 2011 after he was criminally charged for assisting in suicides in Georgia and Arizona.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Egbert's, the Maryland Board of Physicians based their decision on the following reasons:

Not Dead Yet supports Montana assisted suicide bill.

The following letter was sent by Diane Coleman, the founder and President of the disability rights group, Not Dead Yet to the members of the Montana Senate Judiciary Committee who will be considering a bill to clarify and protect Montana citizens from assisted suicide.

Diane Coleman

Dear Senate Judiciary Committee Member:

Not Dead Yet is a national disability rights group with members in Montana. On behalf of our members, I write to say that we urge you to pass HB 505, which is a short and simple bill to prevent legalization of assisted suicide and end the dispute over whether it is legal in Montana.

In the last two years, three other states have strengthened their laws against assisted suicide (Idaho, Georgia and Louisiana). Not Dead Yet of Georgia was involved in the Georgia efforts. We met with a woman, Sue Celmer, whose ex-husband had been assisted to commit suicide by the Final Exit Network. He had previously battled cancer, but was cancer free when these suicide predators assisted him. Her story helped convey the urgency of legislation banning assisted suicide. We hope that Montana will join Georgia and the other two states to protect older people, our families and ourselves. Leading proponents of bills to legalize assisted suicide for the terminally ill often claim that the views of disability organizations aren’t relevant.  While it’s true that people with disabilities aren’t usually terminally ill, the terminally ill are almost always disabled. This is one of many reasons that our perspective may shed some light on this complex issue.

People with disabilities and chronic conditions live on the front lines of the health care system that serves (and too often under serves) dying people. One might view us as the proverbial “canaries in the coal mine” who are alerting others to dangers we see first.

Assisted suicide supporters paint themselves as “compassionate progressives” fighting for freedom against the “religious right.” It’s a simple message, and it goes down well, if you ignore inconvenient truths, such as:

• Predictions that someone will die in six months are often wrong;
• People who want to die usually have treatable depression and/or need better palliative care;
• Pressures to cut health care costs in the current fiscal climate make this the wrong time to add doctor prescribed suicide to the options;
• Abuse of elders and people with disabilities is a growing but often undetected problem, making coercion virtually impossible to identify or prevent. It’s not the proponents’ good intentions but the language and implementation of assisted suicide laws that legislators need to consider.

As one of countless disabled people who’s survived a terminal prediction, I can’t help but become concerned when the accuracy of a terminal prognosis determines whether someone gets suicide assistance rather than suicide prevention.

The Oregon Reports themselves show that non terminal people are getting lethal prescriptions – up to 1009 days have passed between the request for a lethal prescription and death. One of the many things the Reports hide is specifically how many lived longer than six months, but we do know that there’s no consequence to the assisting doctors for this or any other mistake in the assisted suicide process.

Proponents also claim that 15 years of data from Oregon show that safeguards to ensure that it's voluntary are working. How would they know? The Oregon Reports only tell us what the prescribing doctors indicated were the patients’ reasons for wanting assisted suicide by checking off one or more of seven reasons on a multiple choice state government form.

One of the reasons is feelings of being a burden on others, checked in 39% of the cases. But there’s no corresponding requirement that home care options be disclosed as part of informed consent under the law, much less that they be offered or funded.

Although the Oregon Reports admit that the state can’t assess compliance with the safeguards, some independent articles find that safeguards failed in individual cases (see, e.g., Hendin & Foley, MDs, “Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon: A Medical Perspective”, Michigan Law Review, June 2008, 
http://www.michiganlawreview.org/assets/pdfs/106/8/hendinfoley.pdf). But the law includes no authority for investigation or enforcement, so nothing happens as a result.

It has been estimated that there are 21,265 reported and unreported cases of elder abuse annually in Montana (Elder Abuse Data and Statistics, Elder Abuse Daily, February 15, 2010 http://web.archive.org/web/20101021101332/http://www.eadaily.com/15/elder-abuse-statistics/). Statistically, 90% of elder abusers are a family member or trusted other. Similarly, people with disabilities are up to four times more likely to be abused than their same-age nondisabled peers. In Oregon and Washington, legal assisted suicide has opened new paths of abuse against persons who may qualify to use these laws. One of the most obvious problems is a complete lack of oversight when the lethal drug is administered. If an abuser were to administer the drug without the person’s consent, who would know?

It is simply naive to suggest that assisted suicide can be added to the array of medical treatment options, without taking into account the harsh realities of elder abuse and the related potential for coercion.

We urge you to vote in favor of HB 505.

Sincerely,
Diane Coleman, JD, MBA
President/CEO Not Dead Yet
497 State Street Rochester, NY 14608
www.notdeadyet.org

Support HB 505, to protect Montanans from Assisted Suicide

Statement supporting HB 505


This statement was also printed on March 15 in the Bozman Daily Chronicle.

By Bradley Williams - Montanans Against Assisted Suicide.

House Bill 505 will end the confusion over assisted suicide in Montana.  The bill’s other purpose is to prevent the legalization of physician-assisted suicide.  

Assisted suicide means that someone provides the means and/or information for another person to commit suicide.  When a physician is involved, the practice is physician-assisted suicide.[1]

Assisted suicide is opposed by the American Medical Association and disability rights groups such as the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) and Not Dead Yet.[2]  Assisted suicide is also opposed by the 4000 plus Montanans who have signed our petition against assisted suicide.  Their concerns include elder abuse and steerage of themselves or their family members to suicide.
   
Other States

In the last two years, three states have strengthened their laws against assisted suicide.[3]  These states are Idaho, Georgia and Louisiana.[4]  There are only two states where assisted suicide is legal: Oregon and Washington.  In these two states, the following problems have emerged. 

Throwing away your life

The Oregon and Washington laws allow a doctor to prescribe a  lethal drug to a patient predicted to have less than six months to live.  Predictions of life expectancy can, however, be wrong and treatment can lead to recovery.  Consider Oregon resident, Jeanette Hall, who was diagnosed with cancer and adamant that she would “do” Oregon’s law.  Her doctor convinced her to be treated instead.  Now, twelve years later, “she is thrilled to be alive.” [5] Legal assisted suicide encourages people with many quality years left to throw away their lives.[6]

Elder abuse

The Oregon and Washington laws have significant gaps so that people who use these laws are unprotected from abuse.  The most obvious gap is a complete lack of oversight when the lethal drug is administered.  This creates the opportunity for an heir, or for someone else who will benefit from the patient’s death, to administer the drug to the patient without his consent.   Even if he struggled, who would know?  These laws create the opportunity for the perfect crime.[7]

Steerage 

In Oregon, legalization of assisted suicide has empowered the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) to steer patients to suicide.  Specifically, the Plan denies coverage for treatment and offers to pay for suicide instead.  For more detail, see the affidavit of Dr. Ken Stevens, ¶¶ 8 to 12, at: http://maasdocuments.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/signed-stevens-aff-9-18-12.pdf 

House Bill 505

HB 505 clarifies Montana’s existing prohibition against “aiding or soliciting suicide” by expressly stating that physician-assisted suicide is an offense.[8]

HB 505 also gives doctors a clear safe harbor in which they are free to perform palliative care and/or to withhold or withdraw treatment under the Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.[9]  In other words, the law regarding palliative care and withholding or withdrawing treatment remains unchanged. 

Why Legislators Should Vote “Yes”
 
HB 505 is needed because the Montana Supreme Court decision, Baxter v. State, has created uncertainty in the law.  Baxter did not legalize assisted suicide, but the decision is confusing.  This has allowed suicide proponents to falsely and aggressively claim that assisted suicide is “already legal.”  Indeed, the proponents are actively recruiting doctors to perform assisted suicides.

Under HB 505, the law will instead be clarified that physician-assisted suicide is not legal in Montana.  There will be a clear tool for law enforcement, the medical profession and other interested parties to protect citizens from the negative consequences of assisted suicide legalization.

For more information about why HB 505 is the right step for Montana, see: www.montanansagainstassistedsuicide.org 

Please tell your legislators to vote “yes” on HB 505.
______

*Bradley Williams is President of Montanans Against Assisted Suicide (MAAS).  He can be reached at 406 531 0937 and bradley@montanansagainstassistedsuicide.org 

Footnotes
[1]  The American Medical Association (AMA) states "Physician-assisted suicide occurs when a physician facilitates a patient’s death by providing the necessary means and/or information to enable the patient to perform the life-ending act." (AMA Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 2.211).
[2]  The AMA's opposition to physician-assisted suicide is set forth here: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/opinion2211.page  The opposition of the Disability Rights Education Defense Fund and Not Dead Yet is set forth here and here.
[3]  Margaret Dore, US Overview, at: http://www.choiceillusion.org/p/us-overview.html
[4]  Id.
[5]  See Affidavit of Kenneth Stevens, MD, Leblanc v. Canada, ¶¶ 3 to 6, at: http://maasdocuments.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/signed-stevens-aff-9-18-12.pdf 
[6]  Id, ¶ 7.
[7]  For more information, see: Margaret K. Dore, "'Death with Dignity': What Do We Advise Our Clients?," King County Bar Association, Bar Bulletin, May 2009; Margaret Dore, "'Death with Dignity': A Recipe for Elder Abuse and Homicide (Albeit not by Name)," Marquette Elder's Advisor, Vol. 11, No. 2, Spring 2010; and Margaret Dore, Oregon's New Statistics, at: http://www.choiceillusion.org/2013/01/oregons-new-statistics.html 
[8]  HB 505 can be viewed here:  http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/2013/billpdf/HB0505.pdf 
[9]  Id. at lines 26 to 28 regarding Title 50, Chapters 9 & 10 (the Rights of the  Terminally Ill Act is Chapter 9, see: http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/mca_toc/50_9.htm).

Assisted Suicide - US Overview.

By Margaret Dore,

Margaret Dore

There are two states where physician-assisted suicide is legal: Oregon and Washington. In these states, statutes give criminal and civil immunity to doctors and others, including family members, who participate in a patient's suicide under certain conditions. Oregon's act was enacted via a ballot initiative in 1997. Washington's act was enacted via a ballot initiative in 2008 and went into effect in 2009.

No such law has made it through the scrutiny of a legislature despite more than 100 attempts.

The Oregon and Washington assisted-suicide acts are similar. They apply to "terminal" patients, defined in terms of having less than six months to live. Such persons are not necessarily dying. Consider, for example, Jeanette Hall, now alive 12 years after her terminal diagnosis. More recent proposals to legalize assisted suicide have included people who are clearly not dying. Click  here, here and here.  

In Montana, Baxter v. State gives doctors who assist a patient's suicide a potential defense to prosecution for homicide. Baxter does not legalize assisted suicide by giving doctors or anyone else immunity from criminal and civil liability although proponents argue that this is the case. Click here and here. 

In Montana, the leading group against assisted suicide is Montanans Against Assisted Suicide & For Living with Dignity.

On July 17, 2012, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld its law criminalizing assisted suicide as constitutional. To view the court's opinion, click here.

In 2012, Georgia and Louisiana strengthened their laws against assisted suicide. To see Georgia's new statute, click here. To learn more about Louisiana's statute, click here and here.  

In July 2011, Idaho enacted a statute strengthening its law against assisted suicide. For more information, click here.

In 2011, bills to legalize physician-assisted suicide were defeated in Montana, Hawaii and New Hampshire. In Vermont, identical legalization bills were introduced in the House and Senate, but not put on for vote before the legislative session ended. In 2012, these same bills died in committee. For more information see Vermont Against Assisted Suicide.

In Hawaii, where a bill to legalize assisted suicide was defeated in 2011 as well as in prior years, proponents claimed that assisted suicide was legal due to a 1909 statute. On December 8, 2011, the Attorney General of Hawaii  rejected this claim via a formal legal opinion. See also Hawaii Against Assisted Suicide & For Living with Dignity.

In Connecticut, a lawsuit to legalize physician-assisted suicide was dismissed in 2010. There is now a similar lawsuit pending in New Mexico.

In Massachusetts, there is a pending ballot initiative to enact an Oregon/ Washington style act that applys to "terminal" patients defined as predicted to have less than six months to live. For more information, see Mass Against Assisted Suicide.

Utah has also been targeted by assisted-suicide/euthanasia proponents. See Utah Against Assisted Suicide: "Choice" is an Illusion.

Georgia replaces assisted-suicide law that was tossed out

The American Medical News reported in the 'News-in-brief' on the law that prohibits assisted suicide in Georgia. The news item is in their May 21, edition and can be found online here.

The AMAD News accurately reported that only Oregon and Washington States have legalized assisted suicide.

The new law was put in place after the Final Exit Network assisted the suicide of John Celmer (58) who was depressed but recovering from cancer.

The news article is as follows:

Georgia replaces assisted-suicide law that was tossed out

Georgia has enacted legislation to outlaw physician-assisted suicide, replacing a law the state Supreme Court struck down in February on First Amendment grounds. The law makes it a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for any licensed Georgia “health care provider” to knowingly and willfully assist in the commission of a suicide (legis.ga.gov/legislation/20112012/127675.pdf).

The law excludes from its definition of assisted suicide palliative care measures delivered with the sole intent of alleviating pain rather than causing death. With the law, enacted in May, Georgia joins more than two dozen other states with similar criminal statutes. Two states, Oregon and Washington, have laws authorizing doctor-aided death for terminally ill patients.

Georgia’s previous law was struck down because it barred the speech acts of advertising or offering assisted suicide services. The (Georgia) Supreme Court ruling led to the dismissal of charges against a physician and three other people accused of assisting in the suicide of a 58-year-old man with oral cancer.

Who are the Final Exit Network?

By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Members of the Final Exit Network (FEN) have been on trial in Arizona, Georgia and now Minnesota. The question is - who are the Final Exit Network?

The first place to look for information about FEN is from Stephen Drake, the research analyst for the disability rights group Not Dead Yet. Drake has been following FEN for many years and is an expert on FEN.

Many people know about the Hemlock Society that was co-founded by Derek Humphry, who co-wrote the book Jean's Way (a story of how he helped to kill his first wife) and who wrote the book Final Exit. The Hemlock Society over the past few years has merged with other groups to become Compassion and Choices. Humphry is now the chair of the advisory board for FEN.

FEN is a group that aids and counsels suicide. FEN will journey with a person to assist them in completing a suicide as part of their Exit Guide Service. The FEN describes the following criteria for assisting a suicide:

• they suffer from a fatal or irreversible illness or intractable pain,
• they judge that their quality of life is unacceptable to them,
• they judge that their future is hopeless.

John Celmer

Notice that the "criteria" has nothing to do with being mentally competent or terminally ill. The court cases that FEN went through in Arizona and Georgia were based on people who were very depressed. In Georgia Susan Celmer, the widow of John Celmer (who died with the aid of FEN), testified before a legislative committee that her husband was experiencing deep depression.

The Washington Post published (January 2012), an article that was written by Manuel Roig-Franzia about Lawrence Egbert, a retired doctor who was hailed as the new face of the assisted suicide movement, after the death of Jack Kevorkian.

The article is very interesting for what it says and for how it describes Egbert's motives.

In the Washington Post article Egbert demonstrates how the "exit hood" works. Egbert also brags about the number of deaths he has assisted and states that he is willing to assist a suicide of a person who is chronically depressed. The Washington Post article states:

Egbert estimates he has been present for 100 suicides in the past 15 years, a figure that puts him in the same league with the famed assisted-suicide maverick Jack Kevorkian, who claimed to have helped more than 130 people die. Egbert calls Kevorkian a “radical” because the latter took an active role in some suicides, building a machine to administer lethal doses and sometimes injecting patients himself. Egbert sees his work as a calling, a vocation aimed at ending suffering. But he says he provides only guidance and support.

Egbert says he approved applications for about 300 suicides, most as medical director of the Final Exit Network, a loosely knit group that claims 3,000 dues-paying members. Even within his own organization, Egbert is controversial. The vast majority of the network’s members suffer from painful physical ailments such as late-stage cancer, he says. But unlike the group’s current leadership, Egbert is also willing, in extreme cases, he says, to serve as an “exit guide” for patients who have suffered from depression for extended periods of time.

Exit Hood

FEN claims that they only provide information, but the Washington Post article indicates that they also counsel the person to suicide. The article describes how FEN promotes the use of the Exit hood (suicide bag):

Final Exit’s patients are instructed that they can buy helium tanks at party stores, Egbert tells me. Remnants of his clients’ visits to party stores lie beneath the hoods, at the bottom of Egbert’s garbage bag. Here is a pack of balloons. Pink, blue, yellow, green.

For the hoods, Egbert’s organization has recommended two suppliers: One sells a $60 hood with a “very adjustable ‘sweatband’ neck, considered superior to bags with Velcro necks,” according to a script used by volunteer phone operators, known as “first responders.” The other option is called an “Orchid Bag” and has an elastic neck.

FEN claims that they do not break the law, but Egbert admits in the article that he not only provides Exit hoods (suicide bags) but that they also remove evidence from the location after the death has occurred. The Washington Post article states:

Egbert tells me that years ago he asked someone who was about to “exit” if he could reuse the hood to save future patients the cost of buying a new one. The patient was delighted with the idea, Egbert says. He started asking everyone.

The hood in my bare hands feels slightly slick. So, this one, the one I’m holding, has been used to end someone’s life? I ask. Egbert tells me it has surely been used at least once, and maybe several times, and the same could be said for most of the other 17 hoods in the garbage bag.

The Washington Post article indicates that Egbert will often provide a used Exit hood for the suicide. This statement clearly indicates that FEN counsels and provides the means of death for suicide. One or both of these acts would contravene the law in most states and in most countries.

FEN claims that they are a group of people who only journey with a dying person to there final end. Egbert describes an earlier assisted suicide where the woman had failed twice to commit suicide.The Washington Post article stated:

In the early days, Egbert says, he and other volunteers used a common supermarket “turkey bag,” which had a tendency to fail on occasion. Once, he recalls, he was working with a woman who’d had two unsuccessful suicide attempts. The woman seemed to die but awoke a few minutes later. “You screwed up twice yourself — you call in the pros, and we couldn’t do it either!” he told her. They patched a hole in the bag, and this time it worked.

Clearly Egbert actively participated in the assisted suicide death.

Egbert admits a couple of times in the Washington Post article that he is unsure of what he is doing. He refers to the fact that his father was involved with the Nuremberg trials after World War II and he also refers to his opposition to the Death Penalty. The Washington Post article states:

The father’s experiences prompted the son’s curiosity. The younger Egbert fixated on the appalling actions of Nazi doctors, especially the experiments they had conducted, such as immersing inmates in ice water or injecting them with poisons.

“Most of them thought it was justified,” Egbert says one afternoon. “Some of them were delighted by it.”

As he did with the death penalty doctors in Texas, Egbert weighed the choices that Nazi doctors made — choices that eventually led to unspeakable evils — against the choices he made.

“It makes me suspicious of everything I do — that I might be doing something evil,” he says. “I think about it a lot.”

He thinks of doctors consulting for executions, for instance, and imagines “a slippery slope.” He also wonders whether his own work could nudge society toward something awful.
“I could be part of a slippery slope,” he says, “to us becoming like Nazis — the Final Exit Network, and me as an individual.”

Egbert explains in the Washington Post article how FEN decides to assist a suicide.

To be “guided” by the network, people who want to commit suicide are asked to apply for membership and pay annual dues of $50, which goes toward operating expenses such as travel. After a person joins, a “medical committee” decides whether the applicant is eligible, starting a process of consultations that can last years. The committee was supposed to have three members, but in reality Egbert was making most of the decisions on his own. ...

Egbert has estimated that he approved 95 percent of applications.

Egbert also described another case from a few years previous, a woman who experienced chronic depression who Egbert and Jerry Dincin assisted the suicide.

The woman was a 65-year-old teacher who had suffered from extreme bouts of depression since she was a teenager and was prone to violent outbursts. Still, “I had very lively mixed feelings, just looking at her,” Egbert says. “Very attractive, very intelligent. A woman who could walk for miles — pretty much do anything.”

He decided she qualified, though, because she had tried antidepressants and electroshock therapy without success. Egbert and Dincin rented a car and drove to her home. She put on a bathrobe and followed their instructions to sit with her head tilted slightly up. She released the valves, pulled the hood over her head and Egbert told her to “breathe normal.”

“At that time I took her hand,” Egbert says. “My colleague took her other hand.” He was comforting her, not trying to stop her from removing the hood, he says.

When it was done, they collected the equipment and left.

It is interesting that Egbert admits that they held her hands, and then emphasized that they were not trying to stop her from removing the hood. The official FEN guidebook emphasizes the importance of holding a persons hands to prevent them from removing the hood.

It is important to understand that groups, like FEN, think that they are helping people, when in fact they are fulfilling their own personal and emotional needs.

Causing death creates a feeling of power and control. Egbert liked to decide that they would go ahead and assist the suicide of a person who is depressed or suicidal.

It is also important to notice that the people who are dying are rarely terminal, usually depressed, and often living with chronic conditions or with disabilities.

The next time you read an article promoting euthanasia for people who are terminally ill or suffering, read the article from the Washington Post. It is important to notice what Egbert is really saying as he is being promoted as being more prolific than Jack Kevorkian.