Final Exit Network

Final Exit Network logo

The Final Exit Network is an American organization that offers counseling, support, and guidance in a successful suicide to individuals who are suffering from an intolerable illness. The organization believes that individuals suffering from intolerable illnesses deserve a dignified death.[1] The organization promotes the use of living wills, advance directives, durable powers of attorney for health care, and do not resuscitate orders, and advocates for individuals when their Advance Directives are not being followed.

When the organization End-of-Life Choices, the successor to the Hemlock Society, merged with Compassion in Dying Federation to form Compassion and Choices, some former Hemlock Society and End-of-Life Choices members formed Final Exit Network. The organization focuses on providing compassionate support to the dying as opposed to promoting legislative change. Final Exit Network is a member of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies (and Compassion and Choices is not). Its current president is Wendell Stephenson[2] and Derek Humphry is a member of the advisory board.

The Exit Guide program of Final Exit Network provides support to people with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease, congestive heart failure, emphysema, cancer, and other incurable illnesses. Final Exit Network conducts a review process and applies protocols to ensure applicants for support in their death are suitable candidates and are not suicidal.

"The Suicide Plan," an episode of PBS Frontline (U.S. TV series)) that first aired November 13, 2012, details how Final Exit Network’s tactics triggered a major criminal investigation in Georgia and Arizona. Members were charged with assisting in the deaths of John Celmer, 58, of Cumming, Georgia and Jana Van Voorhis, 58, of Phoenix, Ariz. Celmer suffered from widely metastatic oral cancer. Van Voorhis told volunteers she suffered from cancer and other physical ailments, but she actually suffered primarily from mental illness.[3]

The Maryland Medical Board revoked the license of long-time Final Exit Network medical director Lawrence Egbert, MD in December 2014, finding he unethically and illegally helped six people die who were not terminally ill.[4]

Doreen Dunn case

Doreen Dunn, 57, died in 2007 at her home in Apple Valley, Minnesota.[5] A grand jury indictment charged the Final Exit Network and four of its volunteers with various charges related to allegedly assisting in a suicide in connection with Dunn's death.

In early 2013 the trial court dismissed all charges against one of the defendants, former Final Exit Network president Ted Goodwin, for lack of evidence. District Judge Karen Asphaug also found the Minnesota statute against "advising, encouraging, or assisting" in a "suicide" to be unconstitutional in part for violating the defendants' First Amendment-protected right to freedom of speech. The State appealed her First Amendment decision.

The Court of Appeals of Minnesota agreed and ruled that the statute's prohibitions of "advising" and "encouraging" a suicide had to be stricken from the statute, but allowed the prosecution to continue for "assisting" in a suicide.[6] The Supreme Court of Minnesota indicated it would review the Court of Appeals' decision, but later dismissed the appeal. In the meantime, one of the defendants, another former Final Exit Network president Jerry Dincin of Chicago, died of prostate cancer. As the case returned to the trial court for a jury trial, the only remaining defendants were Final Exit Network, Inc., Egbert, and a former Final Exit Network case coordinator, Roberta Massey of Delaware.

The trial was scheduled to begin on May 4, 2015. The trial court indefinitely continued the case against Massey due to concerns about her health. Only the corporation and Egbert were expected to stand trial.

Jana Van Voorhis case

Jana Van Voorhis was an Arizona woman with a history of mental illness whose suicide was allegedly assisted by the Final Exit Network in 2007.[7] Two members of the Final Exit Network were charged with aiding in a suicide (which is considered manslaughter under Arizona law) and conspiracy to commit manslaughter. Two others were charged only with conspiracy.

Two of the defendants, Wye Hale-Rowe and Roberta Massey, both elderly and in poor health, pleaded guilty to minor charges in plea bargains that ensured they would not run any risk of being sentenced to a prison term.[8] The trial of the other two began on April 4, 2011. After a two-week trial, Final Exit Network's medical director, Dr. Lawrence Egbert, was found not guilty by an eight-member jury. [9]

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the case against a volunteer Exit Guide, Franklin Langsner. Before his retrial, scheduled for August 4, 2011, the State offered him a plea bargain "he could not refuse," he said. He pleaded guilty to a minor misdemeanor and was sentenced to one year on probation, following which his record would be expunged.[10]

Thus the State was unable to secure any conviction by a jury, and nobody from Final Exit Network pleaded guilty to assisting in a suicide, or to any felony charge.[11]

John Celmer case

On February 25, 2009, four members of the Final Exit Network were arrested on charges of assisting the suicide of a cancer patient, John Celmer, of Cumming, Georgia. Those arrested were Ted Goodwin, Claire Blehr, Dr. Lawrence Egbert, and Nicholas Alec Sheridan.[12] They and the organization were also indicted on a charge of racketeering. On April 1, 2010, the five defendants pled not guilty.[13]

The defendants moved to dismiss the indictment on grounds that the Georgia statute on aiding in a suicide is facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment.[14] In early 2011 the trial court judge entered an order denying the defendants' motion to dismiss the indictment. [15] The judge entered an order authorizing the defendants to appeal this decision.[16] On February 6, 2012, the Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously found the Georgia statute against assisting in a suicide unconstitutional in violation of First Amendment free speech provisions, and struck down the statute in its entirety.[17] The charges against Goodwin, Blehr, Egbert, and Sheridan were therefore dismissed.[18]

References

  1. ↑
  2. ↑
  3. ↑ "FRONTLINE: The Suicide Plan". PBS. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Maryland doctor loses license after 6th assisted suicide in state". RT.com. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  5. ↑ Laura Adelmann, "Dakota County Grand Jury to consider assisted suicide charges," The Sun This Week newspaper, http://sunthisweek.com/2012/05/07/dakota-county-grand-jury-to-consider-assisted-suicide-charges-in-2007-death/
  6. ↑ "Final Exit case is headed back to trial court". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Retrieved January 1, 2015.
  7. ↑ Bethea, Charles, "Death's Escorts: The Final Exit Network, and what they leave behind," March 2010
  8. ↑ http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2010/05/final_exit_network_bigwig_plea.php
  9. ↑ http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/06/final_exit_network_defendant_p_1.php
  10. ↑ http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/06/final_exit_network_defendant_p_1.php
  11. ↑ http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/06/final_exit_network_defendant_p_1.php
  12. ↑ Rhonda, Cook; Boone, Christian (February 26, 2009). "4 arrested in Ga. assisted suicide sting". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  13. ↑ Bluestein, Greg (April 1, 2010). "Members of group plead not guilty". Associated Press. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  14. ↑ Jeffrey Scott, "Final Exit Network suicide acquittal resonates in Georgia case," Atlanta Constitution-Journal, April 2, 2011, http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/final-exit-network-suicide-group-acquittal-resonat/nQsr3/
  15. ↑ Final Exit Network, Inc., et al. v. State of Georgia, Case No. No. S11A1960, Unanimous Opinion of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Feb. 6, 2012, available at 290 Ga. 508, 722 S.E.2d 722, 12 FCDR 348
  16. ↑ Id.
  17. ↑ Kim Severson, "Georgia Court Rejects Law Aimed at Assisted Suicide," The New York Times, February 6, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/07/us/assisted-suicide-law-is-overturned-by-georgia-supreme-court.html?_r=0 Karmasek, Jessica M. (2012-02-13). "Ga. SC deems assisted suicide law unconstitutional". Retrieved 18 February 2012.; see also Final Exit Network, Inc., et al. v. State of Georgia, Case No. No. S11A1960, Unanimous Opinion of the Supreme Court of Georgia, Feb. 6, 2012, available at 290 Ga. 508, 722 S.E.2d 722, 12 FCDR 348, and at http://www.gasupreme.us/sc-op/pdf/s11a1960.pdf. Streaming audio/video of Oral Argument in the Supreme Court of Georgia is available at http://multimedia.dailyreportonline.com/2011/11/final-exit-network-inc-et-al-v-the-state/
  18. ↑ Rankin, Bill (February 6, 2012). "Court strikes down Georgia's assisted-suicide law". Cox Media Group. Retrieved 18 February 2012.

External links