It’s been dizzying trying to keep up with the onslaught of one-sided, sloppy, careless, misleading coverage of the Final Exit Network. It gets hard to know what to pick and where to begin.
Today, though, one article jumped out through the pile of slush masquerading as journalism. It isn’t the worst example of coverage, but it contains what is possibly the most blatantly false claim about the Final Exit Network (FEN) “activities” and how the laws in Oregon and Washington State affect those activities.
“Doctor faces assisted-suicide charge in Georgia” by Kevin B. O’Reilly shares several flaws common in much of the coverage of FEN. First, his information on the state of assisted suicide legislation isn’t current. Contrary to the information in the article, the bills in New Hampshire and Hawaii are dead for this year.
Second, he allows the FEN members to describe, unchallenged, what “assistance” consists of when they serve as “exit guides”:
Dr. Egbert, a retired Baltimore anesthesiologist, would not speak about the Georgia case. But he said the network advises its members on how to die peacefully using a helium gas tank and a plastic hood, both of which are easily accessible to nonphysicians. Volunteers, called “exit guides,” are present, but Dr. Egbert said the people seeking death must initiate the death procedure and can change their minds at any time.
There is no mention in O’Reilly’s article about the allegations made by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that the “assistance” of FEN “exit guides” goes alarmingly beyond what Egbert claims. In fact, the undercover agent has alleged that he was told, while posing as a potential ‘client,’ that part of the “assistance” would entail having the “exit guide” hold his hands down to prevent him from tearing off the bag (which would be filled with helium). This allegation means that even if a person changed their mind, they would still end up dead.
But the real “prize” in this article isn’t something that Kevin O’Reilly wrote, but what assisted suicide advocate Timothy Quill had to say:
The Georgia investigation is “good for the [aid-in-dying] movement, in a strange way, because it’s symptomatic of how desperate people are, and we just have to say there’s got to be a better way to deal with these cases,” said Timothy E. Quill, MD, director of the University of Rochester Medical Center’s palliative care program in New York. “Where don’t you need the Final Exit Network? Oregon and Washington, because they have a forthright system.” (emphasis added.)
That’s a ludicrous statement. But don’t take my word for it. The Final Exit Network issued a press release on Nov. 5, 2008 celebrating the passage of legalized assisted suicide in Washington State. But the press release carried a strong caveat (note – per our standing policy, we will not link to the FEN website. We have ethical concerns about suicidal people finding information and “support” to kill themselves so easily. A concern that is obviously not shared by the editors of AMNews – a publication of the American Medical Association, since they do provide a link for readers.)
From the Final Exit Network press release:
Although, like Oregon’s “Death with Dignity Act,” I-1000 gives doctors the authority to prescribe a lethal dose of medications to terminally ill individuals under strict controls, it condemns to continued suffering as many as 40% of those who desperately want to end their life because of intolerable suffering but cannot under the law because their illness is not diagnosed as “terminal”.
“Unfortunately,” said Goodwin, “many patients do not meet I-1000’s strict criteria. 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’.” Goodwin adds, “For these individuals, neither I-1000 nor the Oregon law go far enough. “That is why Final Exit Network pledges, until laws protect the right of every adult to a peaceful, dignified death, Final Exit Network will be there to support those who need relief from their suffering today!”
“The Network’s Exit Guide Program is available nationwide,” Goodwin said. “With the Network’s compassionate guidance and support, physically and mentally competent adults in all fifty states are free to exercise their last human right — the right to a peaceful, dignified death. “Final Exit Network is the only organization in the United States that will support individuals who are not “terminally ill” – 6 months or less to live – to hasten their deaths. No other organization in the US makes this commitment,” said Goodwin.
As the November press release by FEN makes clear, they are not satisfied at all with the limits – such as they are – in the legislation in Oregon and Washington State. They made it clear – in November – that passage of the law in Washington wouldn’t deter them from being active there and they strongly imply they have been active in Oregon.
This makes Tim Quill’s statement pure BS. There are only two possible explanations for the blatant misrepresentation of facts. Quill, a respected leader in the “right to die” movement, doesn’t bother to keep track of what different organizations such as FEN are doing and advocating. If that’s true, it certainly calls his “expertise” into question.
The other explanation is that he’s deliberately misleading the public by misstating the facts. That doesn’t speak well of him either.
So – we’re left with two possibilities to explain the statements by Timothy Quill. He’s either sloppy and/or incompetent – or he’s a liar.
I know which explanation I lean toward, since several fellow board members of his on the Death with Dignity National Center board of directors have a rich history in advocating expansive “eligibility” criteria for suicide assistance very similar to FEN’s. I’ll write about that another time. –Stephen Drake