Blog recommendation – Disability Prejudice and Civil Rights Watch

assisted suicide, blog recommendations, bloggers, final exit network, Our News & Commentary Blog

Alison at Disability Prejudice and Civil Rights Watch has been following the story of the Final Exit Network arrests/investigation. She gave a “shout out” to this blog regarding the coverage (or mis-coverage) of the radical arm of the “Right to Die” movement.

In addition, she has her own observations to share, and I encourage others to read them, and an earlier post on the same subject.

Links:

Mainstream Media Not Covering What the Final Exit Network Does–It “Helps” and May Murder People Who Are NOT Dying but Disabled or Old or Depressed (most recent)

Ring That Allegedly Helped Kill People with Disabilities and Older Folks Going Down

In general, Alison’s blog is one you would want to bookmark if you want to keep up with someone who closely tracks issues related to civil rights issues affecting people with psychiatric labels.

And when I finally get the blogroll up here, this blog will be on it. Count on it. –Stephen Drake

Time Magazine Article Misrepresents Final Exit Network and Who They “Help”

assisted suicide, crime and punishment, final exit network, media coverage, media issues, Our News & Commentary Blog, Time magazine

Yesterday, I promised that I would have some “nasty” things to say about an article concerning the Final Exit Network (FEN). I don’t know if what you’ll find below is “nasty,” but the March 2 article “Final Exit: Compassion or Assisted Suicide?” totally distorts and mangles the core facts of the story surrounding FEN. As a result, the ensuing discussion has nothing to do with the realities of a group that promoted itself on the premise that they alone were a group that would facilitate the suicides of people who didn’t remotely fit a definition of “terminal.”

Alarmingly, several articles dealing with the FEN arrests/investigations have glossed over FEN’s “assistance” of NON-terminally ill people, so that the theme that emerges is one that suggests that laws similar to Oregon’s assisted suicide law would prevent people from being “forced” to resort to this kind of lawless behavior. Since FEN specializes in “helping” nonterminally ill individuals, it’s a specious argument.

Time magazine, like other major media, doesn’t seem to want to hear from anyone complaining about factual inaccuracy. They sure make the process hard enough. I ended up calling the main switchboard and using the voice directory, connected with editor Richard Stengel’s office (his was the only name I knew). His secretary was helpful, especially when she found out I was quoted in the story. I emailed her the message below, which she informed me was forwarded to an appropriate staffer. I’ve made slight edits (e.g. omitting the final exit network URL here), but this is basically what was sent:

Dear Ms. _____, I will be publishing this critique on my blog this afternoon. The traffic is pretty heavy these days, considering the subject matter. I would sincerely appreciate being able to include a response from someone at Time in what I write. My blog is at http://notdeadyetnewscommentary.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your time and attention – the concerns are listed below. –Stephen Drake

Re: “Final Exit” story – http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1882418,00.html?imw=Y

I was one of the persons interviewed by freelance reporter Paige Bowers for the article on the Final Exit Network that was published on March 2, titled “Final Exit Network: Compassionate Presence or Suicide Aid?”. I have no complaints about the accuracy of my own quotes as they are presented in the article.

There is a very real problem – approaching real journalistic failure – with basic factual information given in the article.

Most of that is given right in the first paragraph:

“The crackdown on Final Exit Network, a group based in Marietta, Ga., that is accused of assisted suicide, has revived the right-to-die debate that was fueled in the 1990s by Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan doctor who assisted in the deaths of 130 terminally ill people. But Final Exit claims that its volunteers do not perform assisted suicides à la Kevorkian, who was convicted of second-degree murder and went to prison for giving a lethal injection to a man suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Rather, the group argues that it merely provides a “compassionate presence” for terminally ill people, giving them information about suicide if they request it.”

First, and this has been documented multiple times, the majority of Kevorkian’s “clients” weren’t terminally ill. Most had chronic conditions and disabilities. Some had no identifiable health condition at all. This was well documented as far back as 1997, when the staff of the Detroit Free Press undertook an extensive analysis of Kevorkian’s “clients” and his practices. It’s still available online at:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070527/NEWS05/70525061/1007/NEWS05

There are more recent journal articles that contain analyses yielding similar results, although not as accessible. I can provide these on request.

It’s possible to give Ms. Bowers a “pass” on the mischaracterization of Kevorkian, since most in the media seem to be strangely amnesiac about all this.

Having said that, there is absolutely no excuse for the characterization of “Final Exit Network” as providing a service for “terminally ill people.”

For starters, the two deaths under investigation involve a man in Georgia who was successfully treated for cancer and found cancer-free at autopsy. The second death involves a woman in Arizona who had no physical illnesses at all, but a long history of struggling with psychiatric issues.

This link is to an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that highlights the broad agenda of FEN:

http://www.ajc.com/feeds/content/metro/stories/2009/02/28/final_exit_assisted_suicide.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

Or go to the FEN site, which says, under “we serve”:

Individuals with neurological illnesses such as Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Alzheimer’s disease often lose the reason and will to live long before their disease qualifies as “terminal.” Others who are facing protracted, losing battles with cancer, stroke, congestive heart failure, emphysema and other incurable conditions yearn for dignified withdrawal rather than clinging desperately to every breath.

Many of these individuals are not being served. Final Exit Network will serve these and many others like them.

All of this information was available to Ms. Bowers.

This article could have been something to present a real debate rooted in the current news – whether or not one’s perception of one’s “quality of life” is a reason for suicide. Instead, the issue has been totally misrepresented as a case in which a group has “helped” terminally ill people in their “right to die” in states that haven’t legalized the practice.

In fact, the kind of people this group helps wouldn’t be eligible for assisted suicide in Oregon or Washington State. Probably not Montana, either, but things are still up in the air there, in terms of actual rules, guidelines and reporting.

Time magazine failed miserably in its duty to present basic facts accurately. The debate that followed within the article was worthless since it had nothing to do with the story it was supposed to be covering.

I think the public deserves better. Everything I’ve read about journalist ethics would support that view.

I hope that you agree.

Sincerely,

Stephen Drake
Research Analyst
Not Dead Yet
497 State St
Rochester, NY 14608-1642
585-697-1640
http://notdeadyet.org

I have not heard from anyone at Time magazine since I received the reply from Mr. Stengel’s secretary.

This is too important to leave alone.

You can help.

If this seems outrageous and wrong to you, so something about it.

You can send a letter to the editor by using letters@timemagazine.com.

And if you want to send an extra copy of what you send, I’d love to see them.

More later. –Stephen Drake

Latest AP Story on Final Exit Network Talks About Rift in “Right to Die” Movement but Falls Short of Defining it

"end of life", assisted suicide, crime and punishment, Kevorkian, media coverage, Our News & Commentary Blog

The end of this AP article links to a Time magazine article on FEN that was published yesterday (March 2). I am waiting another day to write about that article. I sent an email about that article to Time magazine editor Richard Stengel and wanted to give a full 24 hours to hear a response before I published the complaint on the blog.

Meanwhile, today’s AP Story is titled Ring exposes rift in ‘right-to-die’ movement:

ATLANTA (AP) — The case against members of an assisted suicide ring charged with helping a Georgia man kill himself has exposed a rift in the “right-to-die” movement as key players, including Dr. Jack Kevorkian, rush to distance themselves from the group’s practices.

Kevorkian and others active in the movement have long argued that terminally ill people should be able to seek assistance ending their lives, but only from doctors. The Georgia-based Final Exit Network uses volunteers who are not physicians as “exit guides,” contending such efforts are necessary to help those who want to die but live in states where doctor-assisted suicide is illegal.

Where to begin here? First, as readers of this blog are well aware, Kevorkian never limited his “assistance” to “terminally ill people” and only a minority of his body count could be defined that way. Second, as Bluestein should know from his own previous coverage of this story, Final Exit Network “helped” people who fell far outside the bounds of “eligibility” in states where assisted suicide is legal. The argument is pure crap.

A prominent proponent of assisted from my current home town also chimes in:

Dr. Timothy Quill, a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester in upstate New York, said the case demonstrates a need for “a more humane approach.”

“They are symptomatic of the desperation and fear when people feel that their doctors and health care teams won’t be responsive,” said Quill, a supporter of the laws in Oregon and Washington.

“These are folks who don’t have any expertise in end-of-life care,” he said of the network members. “They are well-meaning, but they’re trying to be responsive to situations that are very complicated.”

Quill is well-informed enough to know how misleading and deceptive it is to refer to clients of FEN in the context of “end of life” care. But then again, Quill may be using the definition of “end of life” arrived at through circular logic. In older articles, Quill argued for granting assisted suicide for the “hopelessly ill” – the same type folk serviced by FEN. Quill probably offended by their lack of clinical expertise than their selection criteria. –Stephen Drake

Newest AJC Article on Final Exit Network – NDY Quoted

assisted suicide, crime and punishment, final exit network, Our News & Commentary Blog

I was beginning to worry that the definition of FEN and its work of encouraging and facilitating suicides of chronically ill, disabled and elderly people was being magically rewritten. The alternate story that has been appearing is that they’re a helpful bunch of people who aid “terminally ill” individuals. They’re “forced” to do this because there are no “helpful” laws like the ones in Oregon and Washington State. I’ll write more about that tomorrow.

The latest from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution steers some of the discourse on track.

OK, I’m biased. I’m quoted. OTOH, tomorrow I’ll write some pretty nasty things about another article that I’m quoted in, so simple inclusion of me or anyone else from NDY doesn’t earn a free pass in the criticism department.

Here’s the latest article, about the Baltimore arrestees turning themselves in:

All four are accused of assisting a non-terminal cancer patient, John Celmer, 58, of Cumming, to kill himself by inhaling helium.

The closing words are mine:

Stephen Drake, with Not Dead Yet, an advocacy group that is against assisted suicide, said Final Exit Network members are “really scary people.”

“These are people who by their own admission sit and help plan the deaths of stranger after stranger,” Drake said.

That’s all for today. More tomorrow. –Stephen Drake

Is Illinois next on the list for the multi-state investigation of Final Exit Network?

assisted suicide, crime and punishment, final exit network, Our News & Commentary Blog

The recent articles on the multi-state investigation of Final Exit Network (FEN) list nine states in the ongoing investigation:

The GBI is now leading a wide-ranging investigation into the ring, which has led to raids in nine states. Authorities say they have searched 14 sites in Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado and Montana.

It seems to me that there should be a tenth state on that list.

That tenth state would be Illinois.

Press reports identify Jerry Dincin as president of FEN. Below is information on Dincin from the FEN website (which I will not link to on this blog):

Jerry Dincin, PhD – President
Highland Park, IL
Joined Network Board 2006
First Responder, Senior Exit Guide and frequent Network speaker
Board member, Hemlock of Illinois (Network Affiliate)

Anyone reading the news stories associated with the FEN investigation should know by now that an “Exit Guide” is a FEN member who steers the person wanting to commit suicide through the process. Here’s what they say about “first responders”:

A First Responder* in your area will call you, talk you through our procedures, and make arrangements for an Exit Guide to contact you and arrange a personal interview in your home if that is appropriate.

So first responders play a central role in coordinating and directing activities.

In addition to Dincin, FEN advisory board member Rosalie Guttman is listed as a Founding Network Board Member, Exit Guide and President of Hemlock of Illinois (Network Affiliate).

In case you missed it, Hemlock of Illinois is an affiliate of FEN – the two organizations are significantly intertwined.

It’s kind of hard to believe that with the president of the organization, an advisory board member and a sister organization, that FEN wasn’t busy in Illinois as well.

I’m pretty sure they are – or they were a few years ago, anyway. That’s when I received a call from some young woman who identified herself as a journalism student who was doing a story kind of “embedding” herself with a local group of exit guides. She was covering their “assistance” with an eighty-year-old woman – not ill, just normal old-age physical complaints, and kind of socially isolated.

Of course, since she got involved with FEN, she wasn’t isolated any more. They were a warm, supportive group of “friends.” All being very nonjudgmental about whether she decided to live or die. The young woman on the phone got quite upset when I pointed out that being nonjudgmental about her committing suicide was – in fact – a judgment in and of itself.

She got even more upset when I pointed out that the FEN “friends” would only act as a support circle so long as she kept suicide as her goal. If she decided she wanted to live, they would disappear as would the young journalism student.

I had nothing I could go to the police with that would justify any kind of investigation, so I let the matter drop and filed it away for a day when the story would be appropriate.

Today is that day – and wondering when Illinois gets added to that list. –Stephen Drake