…ty organization with members in Minnesota, to urge you to vote against the Minnesota assisted suicide bill. It’s frustrating to see the assisted suicide issue portrayed as a progressive social cause. By the time disability rights activists entered the public debate on the issue over 20 years ago, well-funded assisted suicide proponents had already framed the issue for the media. In 1996, urged by friends and colleagues with whom I had struggled to…
…on NPR on the Frontline site (Frontline producers are big fans of FEN): A Minnesota judge has ruled that part of the state’s law against assisted suicide is unconstitutional, in a ruling that could bolster right-to-die advocates’ efforts to overturn it. Judge Karen Asphaug made the decision in striking charges on March 22 against Thomas Goodwin, the former head of the Final Exit Network, a right-to-die group that has been accused of illegally ass…
…ie Cassidy was threatened with removal of oxygen while receiving care at a Minnesota hospital. Without supplemental oxygen, Catie would have suffocated to death. In response, Life Legal attorneys sent a demand letter letting the hospital know of its duties under Minnesota law. We received news today that Fairview Hospital in Edina is fully cooperating with Catie’s health care proxy and that they will continue to provide Catie with oxygen as needed…
…Doreen Dunn in the taking of her own life on May 30, 2007, in violation of Minnesota law.” Here’s a breakdown of the Final Exit Network (FEN) members and their alleged roles in Doreen Dunn’s death: The indictment names Egbert, 84; Jerry Dincin, 81, of Highland Park, Ill.; Roberta Massey, 66, of Bear, Del.; and Thomas Goodwin, 65, of Punta Gorda, Fla. Backstrom said Egbert and Dincin traveled to Minnesota to be with Dunn on the day she died, and th…
…the law after four of its members were indicted in May in the suicide of a Minnesota woman. Prosecutors say the defendants not only supported Doreen Dunn’s decision to kill herself in 2007, but provided her with information and support to follow through. Final Exit members claim they do not encourage suicide, but that the act of giving information and emotional support could be interpreted as “encouraging” under a Minnesota law that makes it a fel…
