Alternate Endings
A review of the new HBO documentary "Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America," 67 minutes in length, which began airing on August 14. (Continue reading ...)
North Carolina already may be a physician aid-in-dying state
Kathryn L. Tucker, the founder and director of the End of Life Liberty Project has concluded that physicians in North Carolina can provide assistance in dying (AID) to their mentally competent terminally ill patients who request it, subject to the prevailing standard of care, without risk of a viable criminal prosecution or medical practice disciplinary action. (Continue reading ...)
Huntington’s Disease and a self-controlled death
This post describes the disease that killed Woody Guthrie–Huntington's Disease–and provides the story of a man who struggled with the disease until he could bear it no longer. (Continue reading ...)
A Self-Deliverance in California
Jim Van Buskirk relates a poignant experience that led to his joining the Final Exit Network. (Continue reading ...)
Why FEN should support the Disability Integration Act
You may not have heard of the Disability Integration Act of 2019, but it is worth the support of the Final Exit Network (FEN) and the individual support of all people who favor a self-controlled death (Continue reading ...)
A non-medical model for a self-controlled death?
In a newly-produced short film, Philip Nitschke argues for a non-medical model to replace the medical model for a self-controlled death. His argument is compelling. If we have a right to a self-controlled death, we should not have to ask permission from doctors to honor that right. As he has said, "You don't have to be a doctor to understand dying." (Continue reading ...)
The taboo surrounding discussions of a self-controlled death
A recent article in the Washington Post produced by Kaiser Health News and written by Melissa Bailey asserts that openly discussing a self-controlled death, no matter how rational the discussion, is viewed by some people as "subversive" or, at least, out of the ordinary or suspect. (Continue reading ...)
A self-controlled death: More thoughts on the language we use
Suicide is not merely too harsh or blunt or embarrassing or unpleasant or offensive when applied to a self-controlled death. It is inaccurate based on its meaning and associations accumulated over time. The search for more accuracy in our descriptions continues. (Continue reading ...)
Anticipating and Deflecting the Worst Effects of Our End-of-Life Milieu
FEN members, more so than the citizenry at large, are dedicated to the goal of dying in peace. However, I suspect that FEN members, very much like most everyone else, may inadvertently misconstrue the meaning of the phrase “to die in peace” and what it may take to achieve given our society’s end-of-life milieu.… (Continue reading ...)
Opposing the right to die
One of the most organized efforts to defeat right-to-die (RTD) legislation wherever it is proposed is spear-headed by Not Dead Yet (NDY) under its current President, Diane Coleman. NDY claims to represent, or be representative of, at least 12 disability rights groups who oppose RTD legislation. Coleman's failed appeal to Maine Governor Janet Mills to veto the RTD law, passed narrowly by Maine's legislature, presents an outline of the arguments used to oppose such RTD laws. (Continue reading ...)