Today’s NY Times includes a story on the Final Exit Network (FEN) by Robbie Brown titled “Arrests Draw New Attention to Assisted Suicide.”
The article’s strongest point is that it clearly states the allegations by an agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation posing as a man with cancer wanting the group’s assistance in planning his suicide:
According to the agent’s affidavit, network members instructed him to buy a helium tank and a plastic “exit mask.”
Thomas E. Goodwin, who was the network president at the time, and Claire Blehr, a member, planned to hold down the agent’s hands while helium flowed into the mask, the affidavit says.
The agent would lose consciousness within seconds and die within minutes, and the guides would remove evidence from the scene.
“They went through a dry run just to let the agent know what would happen,” Mr. Bankhead said. “Mr. Goodwin got on top of the agent and held down both of his hands,” which investigators say would have prevented him from removing the mask if he had changed his mind during a real suicide.
A passing mention is made of the group’s willingness to give “assistance” to people who are “incurably ill” and “suffering.”
The matter drops there, though, leaving the representatives of pro-assisted suicide groups free to criticize the “underground” nature of the activities of FEN.
For what it’s worth, here’s my contribution, lifted out of about 20 minutes of conversation with the reporter:
“These are people who instead of pulling you back from the ledge, they shove you off,” said Stephen Drake, a research analyst for Not Dead Yet, an advocacy group for the disabled that opposes assisted suicide. “Legally, we may not know what this means. But in a personal sense, it can mean the difference between life and death.”
I recall having more to say than that – about the widespread support within pro-assisted suicide advocacy organizations for broader “eligibility” – but that isn’t the kind of approach this particular reporter – or any reporter so far – had in mind. –Stephen Drake