Euthanasia D I Y on DVD

‘FINAL EXIT’ GUIDANCE AVAILABLE ON DVD

Now the latest ways to plan self-deliverance (auto-euthanasia) from an unbearable terminal or hopeless illness can be seen on a DVD screen.

The video is based on the number one bestselling book “Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying” by Derek Humphry.

This 2006 DVD updates the 2000 Final Exit VHS Video.It includes new footage demonstrating the DIY helium bag method which achieves a swift and painless brain death -- not suffocation.

There are graphics and titles illustrating helium tank setup and step-by-step procedures for self-deliverance.

Any inert gas will bring about the same result. Directed, written & narrated by Derek Humphry.

46 minute length. NTSC format. $20 US plus shipping. ISBN 978 0 9768283 0 3

This is an adjunct resource to Final Exit, 3rd edition book with its Final Exit Addendum.(Book ISBN 0 385 336 535)

The paperback is available in good bookstores worldwide but the version including the Addendum is obtainable only from ERGO’s online store. The famous drug dosage chart remains in the book. It is advisable to read both the book and also watch the DVD for the best possible planning. This guidance is for the possible use by a terminally or hopelessly ill competent adult who wishes to avoid further unrelieved pain and distress. Self-deliverance (a.k.a. rational suicide) is not a crime.

Shipment by nonprofit ERGO of this DVD begins 1 January 2006.

Secure ordering now through http://www.finalexit.org/ergo-store

Or send check/money order for $25 US (includes s/h) to: ERGO, 24829 Norris Lane, Junction City, OR 97448, USA.

Canada and overseas orders send $30 US for airmail shipment early January.

Derek Humphry
www.finalexit.org
www.assistedsuicide.org

Dr. Kevorkian stays locked up

The Parole Board in Michigan has decided not to release Dr. Jack Kevorkian until the end of his sentence.

The Board voted 7-2 to recommend denying the application for a commuted sentence or a pardon for the 77-year-old assisted suicide advocate.

Dr Kevorkian was sentenced in 1999 to 10-25 years imprisonment for giving a fatal injection to Thomas Youk, 52, who had Lou Gehrig's decease and asked Kevorkian to give him a mercy killing.

Previously Kevorkian had participated in some 130 euthanasia cases over nine years.

Kevorkian's lawyers recently asked the Parole Board and the Governor to release Kevorkian on the gounds of his ill health. He has Hepatitis C and high blood pressure.

Derek Humphry
www.finalexit.org
www.assistedsuicide.org

Reading and watching

New DVD from the book ‘Final Exit’

The author and director Derek Humphry writes:

Some people can instinctively absorb the contents and instructions in a book fairly quickly. Others learn quicker from visual information on a screen.

Actually, it's wiser to use both in a complex matter like personal choice in dying.

This new DVD of "FINAL EXIT" spells out in plain language and clear video what planning, responsibility, family solidarity, and determination are required from an adult for self-deliverance from a terminal or hopeless illness that can no longer be endured.

And, of course, the various methods of self-deliverance are explained verbally and visually.

DVD and/or book can be obtained from: www.finalexit.org/ergo-store/

The Law and 'mercy killing'

There can be understanding shown by judges in cases of 'mercy killing' as this case from Tasmania shows:

A Launceston [Australia] nurse who tried to kill her mother and helped in the suicide of her father is free after receiving a wholly suspended sentence.

Catherine Ann Pryor, 42, had admitted helping her father kill himself but had denied the charge of attempting to murder her mother. Earlier this month the jury found her guilty of that charge.

In the Criminal Court, Acting Justice Michael Hill said it was clear Pryor had a caring relationship with her mother and was not acting out of self-interest.

Pryor was sentenced to 18 months in jail for the attempted murder and 12 months for the assisted suicide. Both sentences were wholly suspended.

More info on this subject at www.finalexit.org

Euthanasia progress in Switzerland

BREAKTHROUGH IN SWITZERLAND

A hospital in Switzerland says it will allow euthanasia on its premises to the terminally ill. It will be the first in that country to allow the practice. Since 1940 has always been carried out in homes.

Assisted suicide is permitted under Swiss law, but until now hospitals have refused to allow euthanasia to be committed on site. The hastened death can legally be carried out either by a doctor or a non-doctor but most people agree that medical assistance is preferable.

From the start of next year, terminally ill patients in Lausanne's main hospital will be able to take their own lives on hospital premises. Officials say strict controls will still apply.

The patient must be of sound mind, be already too ill to have returned home and have expressed a persistent wish to die.

Senior doctors at the hospital say the decision has come after almost three years of consideration. +++

NOTE: The word 'euthanasia' is a generic term for all forms of hastened, peaceful, painless death. D.H

Further info: assistedsuicide.org

The right to choose to die

Schiavo case repercussions
Michael Schiavo, whose effort to end life support for his brain-damaged wife divided a nation, is launching a political action committee that will challenge candidates based on where they stand on government's reach in
private lives.

Nine months after a fierce political and legal fight over Terri Schiavo, Michael Schiavo said his experience with political leaders "has opened my eyes to just how easily the private wishes of normal Americans like me and Terri can be cast aside in a destructive game of political pandering."

Right-to-die info at www.finalexit.org/

This new OZ law is an ass

Censorship
In Australia, from January 7, any Letters to the Editor about suicide options for the terminally ill will have to be sent by post to avoid a $110,000 fine for using e-mail.

-----Derek Humphry www.finalexit.org

Where is the mercy?

A letter in the AARP Bulletin for December 2005 reads as follows:

Assisted dying: mercy
I am close to 70. Many of us who have reached this age have stood by the bedside of many dying friends and family, some of whom have begged to die.
How do doctors stand that sight day after day, year after year?
Last year, a friend with terminal cancer tried to put a plastic bag over his head in order to cut off all oxygen. He also hid pain pills, prolonging his discomfort until he felt he had enough to end his agony. He no longer wanted to be nauseated, to suffer. And people say he had to continue to live like that? Why?
Where is the mercy?
No one but the patient should be able to make the choice whether to stay or to go at their own time.
We treat our sick animals better than we do our terminally ill patients.
----- Eileen Schenck, Las Vegas, Nevada

Recommend reading "Final Exit, The Practicalities of
Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying" by
Derek Humphry.

Harsh sentence for suicide information

The Dutch may have progressive attitudes and laws on voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide, but they apply only to physicians as this story demonstrates. What if she had read 'Final Exit' which was published in Dutch?

Dutch 'suicide consultant' is jailed for a year
Wed Dec 7, 2005

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch court sentenced a man calling himself a "suicide consultant" to a year in jail on Wednesday for helping a mentally ill woman end her life.

Jan Hilarius, the 73-year-old founder of Dutch suicide consultancy De Einder, was found guilty of helping a 25-year-old woman acquire medicines to kill herself 2003.

A court in the northern town of Alkmaar said in a statement Hilarius had corresponded with the woman and given her information about the deadly doses and combinations of medicines available online.

The court said the fact that Hilarius was not present when the woman killed herself was not the decisive factor.

"On the basis of his experience as a social worker, J.H. should have known that he could not diagnose whether the woman was suffering unbearably," the court said.

"J.H. professes to respect the boundaries of the law but crossed them by providing assistance in suicide to people who possibly were really looking for medical help."

The Netherlands became the first country to legalize euthanasia in 2001 but doctors must obey strict rules.

Patients must face a future of unbearable suffering and make a voluntary, well-considered request to die. Doctor and patient must be convinced there is no other solution. A second doctor must be consulted and life ended in a medically appropriate way.

De Einder -- Dutch for horizon -- was set up in 1995 to offer "professional help" to people who want to kill themselves by either persuading them to change their mind or assisting them to do so if that is their choice, the
group's Web site says.

An article on the Web site says the organization does not provide medicines itself but tells people how to order them on the Internet, advising about 350 people each year and helping at least 35 people to kill themselves annually.

This is not the first time De Einder has been in trouble. In 2003, another consultant was sentenced to six months in jail for helping a woman commit suicide.

The organization argues that the Dutch euthanasia law should be extended to allow professional help for people who have mental and not just physical reasons for wanting to die.

The precise number of euthanasia cases in the Netherlands is not known as not all doctors report them, but the government estimates that there are several thousand each year.
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