Exoo, Exit, Derek Humphry and assisted suicide.

By Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

With all the suicide cases related to the Final Exit Network in Australia, the Gladd Asphyxiation mail order (Exit Hoods) and the connection of Derek Humphry who is promoting these assisted suicide groups, it is important view the documentary by UK documentary producer Jon Ronson titled: Reverend Death that is about the suicide activist and assisted suicide promoter, Rev. George Exoo.

In 2010, George Exoo made plans to open a suicide clinic in Gastonia North Carolina, that was designed to be similar to the Dignitas suicide Clinic in Switzerland. Link to article.

The documentary, Reverend Death was shown on BBC. It can be found on U-Tube in 9 parts. It is a sad story but worth watching. 

If you are living with depression or if you are feeling suicidal go to the Your Life Counts Online Lifeline.

Part 1. http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/23/0VR7mK5hZwU

Part 2. http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/22/SoNowKhO2os

Part 3. http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/21/o-c1RyplBig

Part 4. http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/20/fhGbUKp1fzc

Part 5. http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/19/vctGiwee2m4

Part 6. http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/18/qePaKDg4gtk

Part 7. http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/17/x460pGXVlw4

Part 8. http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/16/4ed5_wAgZ3c

Part 9. http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/15/2iWYrExUceo

When watching Reverend Death, you will notice how the father of the assisted suicide lobby, Derek Humphry, refers people, for suicide assistance, to Exoo when they are not mentally stable. You will also notice at the NuTech meeting when Exoo announces that he was going to commit suicide that the participants, particularly Russel Ogden, the founder of the Farewell Foundation, are more concerned about the method rather than whether or not he should die. Finally you will hear how Exoo appears to have a sexual reaction when he is involved with assisting the suicide deaths of others.

It is important to understand that the concepts of choice and autonomy are really how the assisted suicide lobby sells assisted suicide to the public. The assisted suicide lobby is about a group of people who have become part of a death cult who view themselves as freeing the world of pain and suffering but in reality are working to remove the protections that exist in law for vulnerable people.

Link to an article about Susan Wilson's profitable assisted suicide trip to New Zealand.

Link to an article about the role in the euthanasia lobby in sending depressed and mentally unstable people to George Exoo for assisted suicide.

George Exoo planning to start a death clinic in North Carolina

Euthanasia activist, George Exoo, has announced his intention to open a "right to die" hospice in Gastonia North Carolina.

A few years ago, Exoo was featured in a film documentary entitled "Reverend Death". The filmographer, Jon Ronson, chose to do a film documentary on Exoo because Ronson had supported euthanasia and assisted suicide and Exoo was known to have participated in the assisted suicide death of Rosemary Toole in Ireland.

At that time Exoo told the film crew:

"I think it's the reason I'm placed on this planet,"

Exoo claims to have directly assisted more than 100 people die by suicide, with another 20 people who he claims to have assisted by phone.

Exoo claims:

"I have a heart and a passion for those people, and so reaching out to them may be in the spirit of the Good Samaritan. That's why I do this,”

The North Carolina media stated:

At the facility in Gastonia – he’s looking at a home on West Circle -- Exoo says he plans to help people with terminal and debilitating illnesses end their lives.

Exoo stated:

"This is for people who live in jurisdictions and states like Georgia and Mississippi, Florida, and New York, where having assistance with an intentioned death is not legal,".

As much as Exoo wants to portray himself as a caring compassionate person, the fact is that there is significant profit to be made by establishing a death clinic. Dignitas, the Swiss group that is operated by Ludwig Minelli, has enabled Minelli to become a very wealthy man.

Exoo chose North Carolina because it is one of four states that doesn't have a specific statute criminalizing assisted suicide. But similar to Idaho, even though it may not have a specific statute concerning assisted suicide, it does recognize assisted suicide to be a crime based on common law and legal precedent.

Dr Gerald Aronoff told the media:

"Although there's not a statute criminalizing physician-assisted suicide, it still is not condoning physician-assisted suicide as the best alternative for dealing with these complex, chronic pain, end-of-life issues,"

The article concluded by stating:

In 2007, Exoo spent four months in a West Virginia jail in connection with the death of a woman he assisted in Dublin. A court later ruled he could not be forced to return to Ireland.

Previous articles about George Exoo uncovered some very unsavoury concerns related to Exoo's clients. By filming Exoo over a period of years Ronson learned that most of Exoo's clients were depressed or needed psychiatric help.

Exoo also played games with his suicide victims by moving the bodies in such a way to make it look like they were sleeping.
Link to the article about the Ronson film: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-made-it-look-like-they-died-in-their.html

The other interesting fact that was uncovered by the Ronson film about Exoo was that Ronson learned that Exoo's clients were referred to him by the "mainstream" euthanasia lobby.

Watch the film about George Exoo - Reverend Death on U-Tube: http://www.youtube.com/user/slackmaster2000#p/u/7/0VR7mK5hZwU
Link to the article about Exoo's connections to the mainstream euthanasia lobby: http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/05/euthanasia-advocates-fail-to-distance.html

Link to the article: http://charlotte.news14.com:80/content/local_news/charlotte/630337/assisted-suicide-activist-plans-gastonia--right-to-die--hospice

Kwantlan University College ordered Russel Ogden to stop euthanasia research

Russel Ogden is a criminologist at Kwantlan University College in British Columbia Canada, who has been researching suicide and euthanasia methods.

The National Post reported:

"Our due diligence included obtaining two opinions from one of Canada's foremost criminal lawyers about the legal implications," read a statement issued by the school's director of marketing and communications, Peter Chevrier.

"Based on our due diligence, including the lawyer's opinions, we concluded that there were real and unacceptable legal risks associated with the proposed research."

Kwantlen's decision has upset and dumbfounded some Canadian academics and their representatives. Demanding that Mr. Ogden terminate his research, already approved and underway, "seems like a gross violation of academic freedom," says James Turk, executive director of the Ottawa-based Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents 65,000 instructors.

Apparently, he adds, "Kwantlen obtained a legal opinion that because euthanasia is illegal in Canada, what Mr. Ogden is doing [witnessing suicides] could be illegal. But we don't think that it follows, necessarily. [Post-secondary] researchers examine illegal acts all the time."

Ogden has always claimed to be a researcher and not a euthanasia activist.

In September 2006, I attended the World Federation of Right to Die Societies bi-annual convention in Toronto with two under-cover supporters. Ogden was an active participant.

One of the under-cover attendees of the conference sat beside Ogden at the banquet. Ogden explained to this person his involvement with his research. The under-cover attendee had a very difficult time digesting food as Russel explained his experiences.

Recently, the video that was produced by Jon Ronson on the death activitist George Exoo, showed how Ogden was a central part of the underground death culture as he attended the meetings and asked Exoo questions about his intention to commit suicide if he was to be extradited to Ireland in connection with his death actitivities.

Ogden is not a dispassionate researcher but rather a euthanasia activist.

In my opinion, in the past, when Ogden has made presentations to Canadian parliamentary committees, those presentations need to be viewed as Ogden acting as a lobbyist rather than a researcher.

Kwantlan University College was right to be concerned about his activities.

The National Post article can be found at: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=630214

Euthanasia Advocates fail to distance themselves from Exoo.

On Monday, May 12, 2008 my blog covered the issue of George Exoo and the recent film that has been made about him by film maker Jon Ronson.
http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-made-it-look-like-they-died-in-their.html

Ronson explained that he got the idea of making a film about Exoo after the death of Rosemary Toole. The Ronson exposeé proves that Exoo will assist the suicide of people who are depressed, mentally ill and not terminally ill.

Today Dr. Libby Wilson responded to the Exoo debacle in the guardian newspaper. Wilson explains that “it is by unfortunate associations that the member societies of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies are lumped together with loose cannons such as Rev George Exoo.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk:80/society/2008/may/15/mentalhealth.health

The reality is that the Rev George Exoo finds his victims through the member societies of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.

In September 2006, I attended the World Federation of Right to Die Societies conference in Toronto. One of the speakers was Dr. Philip Nitschke. Nitschke was there to promote the idea of the “peaceful” pill that could be used by anyone when they are “tired of living”.

Maybe Nitschke is just another loose cannon but the member societies of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies didn’t distance themselves from his comments.

A volunteer with the Compassion & Choices client support program explained that she “believes the cost for medical technology is often a waste of money.” She said “She became a volunteer because she wants to hasten her own death.”

This woman was a mainstream volunteer for Compassion & Choices.

Exoo is more extreme than the other Right to Die lobby, but he is only more extreme by degree, not because of his actions.

The Right to Die lobby is a death cult.

The only really difference between the mainstream lobby and the work of George Exoo is the strategy they have set to achieve their agenda.

'I made it look like they died in their sleep'

Jon Ronson is a film producer who supported assisted suicide and decided to make a film about assisted suicide campaigner George Exoo.

Ronson contacted Exoo to make a film about him, after it became known that Exoo had assisted the suicide of Rosemary Toole in January 2002 in Ireland. The Toole suicide created significant support for assisted suicide in Ireland.

The guardian published a story today about the experience Ronson had with interviewing and getting to know Exoo and his suicide "ministry" while producing the film about him.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/12/mentalhealth.health?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

This may be the most interesting story about the "inside" of the underground death culture that I have read. Exoo claims to have been directly involved in 102 suicide deaths. What is astounding is that most of his "clients" were not terminally ill but just depressed and in need of psychiatric help.

The prime example of an Exoo client is Pam Acre, a 59 year-old woman living on the outskirts of Baltimore.

Acre describes her disease as difficult because all the tests come back negative.

Exoo is not concerned about the mental condition of Acre, he is only interested in describing each method of suicide and determining which method Acre prefers.

Ronson was also interesting in finding out how Exoo met his clients.

Ronson interviewed Derek Humphry, the founder of the Hemlock society that has now morphed into the Compassion and Choices group in the U.S.

"Humphry said that the mainstream right-to-die groups will tell them (Exoo clients), "'We can't help you. It's not within our parameters because you aren't terminally ill.' But they pursue you. They call and call. And eventually someone will say, 'George Exoo will probably help you.' And that gets them off the phone and on to George."

What that means is that George Exoo is busy aiding, abeting and counseling suicide for people who are not terminally ill, and who simply need help for their depression and the mainstream "right to die" lobby is complicit by sending him their troubled callers.

The experience that Ronson has with George Exoo proves that when people learn about the right to die - suicide cult - they will change their mind about assisted suicide, like Ronson did.

The other inference that can be drawn from Ronson is that the only reason the mainstream right to die lobby won't "assist" people who are not terminal and only depressed because their goal is to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide and being associated with killing mentally ill and depressed people won't advance their goals.