Newest AJC Article on Final Exit Network – NDY Quoted

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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?

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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

NY Times Columnist Promoted Final Exit Network and Gave Contact Info

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In case you’re wondering, the Final Exit Network and its “work” was never a secret. In fact, they got a big boost of publicity nearly a year ago, from NY Times Health columnist Jane E. Brody.

The column – and her promotion of Final Exit Network – was addressed in this blog:

After laying out the Oregon law and people’s options in terms of limiting life-sustaining treatment, Brody advances down her self-made slope to the advocacy of organizations like the Final Exit Network:

The network’s Exit Guide program accepts members with various incurable diseases that cause intolerable suffering. Members must be “cognitively functional,” “physically strong enough to perform the required tasks” and “able to procure” the needed items. Helium, when inhaled in place of oxygen, results in a loss of consciousness within a minute and heart stoppage in 15 minutes without causing the unpleasant sensation of air hunger, the authors reported.

She gives full contact information.

She didn’t however, say anything about Exit “Guides” holding your hands down so you couldn’t remove the bag.

Have to wonder how many people ended up finding Final Exit Network as a result of this column and her recommendation.

Follow this link for her column sharing info on Final Exit Network.

AP Story Quotes NDY on Final Exit Network

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The latest AP story on the Final Exit Network investigation is out. This link is to SignonSanDiego.com:

Barbara Coombs Lee, president of the national advocacy group Compassion and Choices, said prosecuting assisted suicide only drives it underground.

“It’s not the way to make it safe. The plastic bag is sort of the end-of-life equivalent of the coat hanger,” she said.

There’s only one way to interpret this spin by Coombs Lee. The solution to the “coat hanger” was the legalization of abortion. Since the Final Exit Network openly provides “help” to people who are NOT terminally ill, she has to be testing the waters here – and indicating a new willingness to move to a broader agenda in terms of legalization. After all, the kinds of people that Final Exit Network “helps” wouldn’t be eligible in Oregon. It would take a much more expansive law to put them out of business, using Coombs Lee’s analogy, wouldn’t it?

Here’s me:

But Stephen Drake of the group Not Dead Yet, an advocacy group for the disabled that opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia, said he wonders why the Final Exit Network’s activities are not classified as murder.

“It’s like approaching somebody who is on the ledge of a building and giving them a shove instead of pulling them back,” he said.

Unfortunately, this is slightly out of context, since my remarks about “murder” were made in reference to the reports that Final Exit volunteers hold people’s hands down to keep them from tearing the “exit bag” off. The remark about the ledge was when I was asked to provide a general characterization of them.

More later. I’m sure this is just beginning. –Stephen Drake

Four in “Final Exit Network” Arrested in Georgia Sting Operation

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This story just broke last night, but it keeps growing. I am sure there will be further updates to share in the days ahead:

From the Atlanta-Journal Constitution:

The death had been planned for months, authorities say. Two helium tanks were purchased, along with an “exit bag,” or hood to be placed over the suicidal man’s head.

Thomas “Ted” Goodwin, 63, formerly of Kennesaw, and Claire Blehr, 76, of Atlanta, would observe the death of the man they were told suffered from pancreatic cancer. In truth, the man was a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent conducting a sting operation at a residence in Dawson County.

On Wednesday, authorities say, Goodwin walked the undercover agent through the steps that would have killed him. He demonstrated how he would hold down the undercover agent’s hands to prohibit him from removing the “exit bag.” (Emphasis added)

At that point, other agents moved in and arrested Goodwin, said GBI spokesman John Bankhead. He, Blehr and two men in Maryland were taken into custody on charges they helped John Celmer, 58, of Cumming, commit suicide by the same method last June.

Celmer’s family found his death to be suspicious. They contacted the Cumming Police Department, which led to the GBI’s involvement.

Bankhead said agents found evidence in Celmer’s house linking him to the Final Exit Network, a Marietta-based volunteer organization —- of which Goodwin is president —- supposedly dedicated to serving individuals who are suffering from an incurable illness or intolerable pain.

The detail about holding the hands down to prohibit a “client” from removing the plastic bag opens up the very real possibility that members of this group have slid – from time to time – from “assisting a suicide” to outright murder.

That’s only one of many very good reasons that seems to have sparked a multi-state investigation of the Final Exit Network, who brag about their more or less open-door policy of assisting just about anyone who is old, ill or disabled.

In at least one case, though, they appear to have even crossed that line. Back in 2007, the Phoenix New Times published an investigative report about the suspected involvement of members of the group in the death of Jana Van Voorhis, who struggled with issues related to depression for many years.

Yesterday, the county attorney in charge of the Van Voorhis case announced it is now on the “front burner.” Further, that case is now part of a national investigation spanning six states.

This investigation could get to look like kicking over a rock – lots of ugly crawly things squirming to get away from the light. It looks like this investigation includes search warrants, which could include seizure of computer records, examination of bank accounts, etc. They’d better hope no one in their band of zealots got too sloppy or greedy.

This story isn’t going away any time soon. Back with more as it somes in. –Stephen Drake