Final Exit Network

Final Exit Network, Inc.

Predecessor	Hemlock Society
Formation	2004
Founder	Derek Humphry, Faye Girsh, Ted Goodwin, others
Tax ID no.	80-0119137
Legal status	Active
Headquarters	Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida (mailing address)
President	Janis Landis
Website	finalexitnetwork.org

Final Exit Network, Inc. (FEN) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit right to die organization incorporated in Marietta, Georgia.^[1]. It believes that mentally competent adults who suffer from terminal illnesses, intractable pain, or irreversible physical (though not necessarily terminal) conditions have a right to voluntarily end their lives when they deem their life to be intolerable.^[2] It typically refers to suicides as "self-deliverances".^[3]

The organization was founded in 2004 by former members of the Hemlock Society, including that organization's co-founders, Derek Humphry and Dr. Faye Girsh.^[4] It was named after Humphry’s 1991 book of the same name.^[5] It is a member of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.^[6]

Final Exit Network has occasionally been the subject of controversy due to its methodology.^[7] It favors the inhalation of inert gasses such as helium or nitrogen^[1] in conjunction with an "exit hood", which are purchased by the client.

The network and individual members have been defendants in notable legal cases in Arizona^[8], Georgia^[9], and Minnesota.^[10] The defenses have largely centered around what constitutes aiding or assisting in suicides. The defendants conceded that while volunteer exit guides were present at the deaths of their clients, they did not physically take part in the suicides, and they alleged that prohibitions against informing clients how to take their lives is a violation of the free speech clause in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights.^[11] The Minnesota case resulted in the first conviction of the Final Exit Network; they were ordered to pay in excess of $30,000 in fines and restitution.^[12] In October 2017, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case.^[13]

The Final Exit Network traces its history to the Hemlock Society. It was founded in 1980 primarily by British-born American journalist and author Derek Humphry, his late wife Ann Wickett Humphry, Canadian former Presbyterian minister-turned-skeptic Gerald A. Larue,^[14] and psychologist Dr. Faye Girsh.^[15] However, in the early 2000's, many felt the Hemlock name had become too restrictive. In 2003, the national organization renamed itself End of Life Choices. They later merged with the Compassion in Dying Federation to become Compassion & Choices.^[16] (.PDF) Derek Humphry, Faye Girsh, and others founded the Final Exit Network. Where Compassion & Choices’ focus is on legislative reform and advocating for and ensuring access to end-of-life options, the Final Exit Network concerns itself with what it believes to be the immediate issue of self-deliverance.

Typically, clients' only person-to-person contact with the Final Exit Network is through "exit guides", who are volunteers assigned by case coordinators to meet with clients and are witnesses to the death events.^[17][18][19] The guides attempt to make the death appear to be natural or from the diseases by removing and disposing of the equipment and anything which can link the organization to the death event.^[20]

The Final Exit Network and several members have been defendants in three notable prosecutions: the April 12, 2007 death of Jana Van Voorhis of Phoenix, Arizona; the May 30, 2007 death of Doreen Dunn of Apple Valley, Minnesota; and the June 20, 2008 death of John Celmer of Cumming, Georgia.

Jana Van Voorhis was a 58-year-old Phoenix, Arizona woman with a history of mental illness whose suicide was allegedly assisted by the Final Exit Network in 2007^[21]. She falsely claimed to have a myriad of physical diseases and expressed a belief that she may have had breast cancer.^[22] Two members of the Final Exit Network were charged with aiding in a suicide (which is considered manslaughter under Arizona law) and conspiracy to commit manslaughter. Two others were charged only with conspiracy.^{[citation needed]}

In plea bargains, two of the defendants, senior exit guide Wye Hale-Rowe and case coordinator Roberta Massey, each pleaded guilty to one charge of facilitation to commit manslaughter. Both women were elderly; the pleas ensured they would not run any risk of prison sentences.^[23] The trial of the other two began on April 4, 2011. After a two-week trial, Final Exit Network's medical director, Dr. Lawrence Egbert, was acquitted.^[24] The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the case against exit guide Frank Langsner. Before his retrial, scheduled for August 4, 2011, Langsner accepted a plea bargain on one count of endangerment and was sentenced to one year probation, following which his record would be expunged.^[24]

On February 25, 2009, four members of the Final Exit Network were arrested on charges of assisting the suicide of a cancer patient, John Celmer, of Cumming, Georgia. Those arrested were Ted Goodwin, Claire Blehr, Dr. Lawrence Egbert, and Nicholas Alec Sheridan.^[25] Goodwin and Blehr were arrested in a "sting" operation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI); Egbert and Sheridan, who were residents of Baltimore, Maryland, were later arrested. They and the organization were also indicted on a charge of racketeering. On April 1, 2010, the five defendants pleaded not guilty.^[26]

The defendants moved to dismiss the indictment on grounds that the Georgia statute on aiding in a suicide was facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment.^[27] In early 2011, the trial court judge entered an order denying the defendants' motion to dismiss the indictment.^[28] The judge entered an order authorizing the defendants to appeal this decision before trial and suspending the prosecution until the appeals court's ruling.^[28]

On February 6, 2012, the Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously found the Georgia statute against assisting in a suicide unconstitutional in violation of First Amendment free speech provisions, and struck down the statute in its entirety.^[29] All the charges against Goodwin, Blehr, Egbert, and Sheridan were therefore dismissed.^[30]

Minnesota authorities were tipped off by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation when Doreen Dunn's name was found among physical evidence. Dunn was a 57-year-old Apple Valley, Minnesota woman who suffered from intense pain since 1996 following a medical procedure. She died on May 30, 2007. Her body was found by her husband Mark.^[31] An autopsy concluded that Dunn died of coronary artery disease.^[32]

In May 2012, Final Exit Network was indicted^[33] of assisting in the May 30, 2007 death of Doreen Nan Dunn (née Gunderson; born May 6, 1950^[34]) of Apple Valley, Minnesota. Four members: Dr. Lawrence Egbert, then-case coordinator Roberta Massey, and exit guides Ted Goodwin,, and Jerry Dincin (Goodwin's successor as president) were also charged individually in the 17-count indictment, which included felony counts of assisting in a suicide and gross misdemeanors of interfering with a death scene.

District Court Judge Karen Asphaug dismissed charges against Ted Goodwin on March 22, 2013 on grounds that the state law prohibiting advising a suicide is unconstitutional because the language is too broad; she also dismissed a charge of interfering with a death scene.^[18] Jerry Dincin died of prostate cancer four days later.^[35] On the eve of trial in 2015, the state filed a motion to sever Lawrence Egbert's trial from that of Final Exit Network, Inc. He was granted immunity over his objection.^[31]

Dr. Lawrence Egbert testified that he and Jerry Dincin had gone to Dunn's home to be present with her as she terminated her life, then removed the equipment in order to make it appear as if Dunn had died of natural causes. Final Exit Network’s attorney, Robert Rivas, acknowledged that Egbert and Dincin were in Dunn's presence when she died, but he asserted that the state (represented by prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz) had no proof that the men physically assisted in her death.

Although there was a Minnesota statute in effect at the time of Dunn’s death which prohibited “advising, encouraging, or assisting” in a "suicide",^[36] the state Court of Appeals found the statute to be unconstitutional because it violated the defendants' First Amendment-protected right to freedom of speech. The court ruled that the statute's prohibitions against advising and encouraging a suicide had to be stricken, but it allowed the state to prosecute Final Exit Network for assisting in a suicide.^[37] In an unrelated case before the trial, the Supreme Court of Minnesota ruled that "speech" can constitute "assisting" suicide if the message gives specific instructions on how to carry it out.^[38]

On May 14, 2015, a jury convicted Final Exit Network Inc. of assisting Doreen Dunn’s suicide and interfering with the death scene. It marked the first felony conviction against the organization. It was fined $30,000 by Judge Christian Wilton on the charge of assisting in a suicide and was also required to pay $3,000 in restitution to Dunn's family for funeral expenses.^[39] The United States Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal.^[40]

The organization and its activities were the subject of a November 13, 2012 episode of the public affairs series Frontline entitled "The Suicide Plan".^[41] It was written and directed by Miri Navasky and Karen O’Connor.

It includes interviews with clients, exit guides, and both proponents and opponents of assisted suicide. The Final Exit Network allowed the filmmakers to film part of a training session. Interviewees include organization founder Derek Humphry, Dr. Timothy E. Quill, and Barbara Coombs Lee of Compassion & Choices. It also features Bruce Brodigan of Massachusetts and Hunt Williams of Connecticut, two men who were charged with assisting in suicides. Brodigan assisted his father George's suicide; charges were later dismissed.^[42] He died on April 7, 2012 in Ogunquit, Maine after slipping on rocks and falling into the ocean.^[43] Williams assisted his friend John Welles to fatally shoot himself; he was sentenced to one year's probation and accelerated rehabilitation.^[44]

• Final Exit book by Derek Humphry
• Assisted Suicide
• California End of Life Option Act
• Compassion and Choices (Right-to-Die Organization)
• Death with Dignity National Center
• Dignity in Dying
• Dignitas
• Exit
• Hemlock Society
• World Federation of Right to Die Societies

• Official website
• Frontline: "The Suicide Plan" on YouTube