Used to teach medical ethics at Johns Hopkins University
According to the
latest issue of Newsweek, Jack Kervorkian has passed the baton of “Dr Death” to
an 82-year-old anaesthesiologist of the Final Exit
Network (FEN). As FEN’s medical director, Dr Lawrence Egbert says that he has
“approved” about 80% of 200 to 300 applications from Americans for assisted
suicide. In other words, he has been responsible for between 160 to 240 deaths.
Like Dr Philip Nitschke, of Australia’s Exit International, and Ludwig Minelli,
of Switzerland’s Dignitas, he is happy to help people to die even if they are
not suffering from a terminal illness. Successful applicants to FEN are
assigned “exit guides” who help a person to commit suicide without personally
participating in the process. FEN’s recommended method is a hood over the head
filled with helium.

Dr Egbert surfaced in the American media
after helping a man die in Georgia. On March 9 authorities charged him and
three associates with racketeering, assisting a suicide, and tampering with
evidence. He will plead not guilty, says his lawyer. He has also been indicted
in Arizona for manslaughter with another three associates.

A libertarian who once
taught medical ethics at Johns Hopkins University, Dr Egbert believes
passionately that everyone has the right to dispose of his or her life whenever
they want. A doctor’s role is to reduce suffering, he told Newsweek. “When we can’t help them fix the suffering, then we should help
them get it over with,” he says. And he adds, “I’ve never actually
felt more like a doctor than [when I’m] doing this work.”

Newsweek says that FEN is radical edge of
the right-to-die movement. Even though Oregon legalized assisted suicide in
1994, other states were slow to follow its example. The larger right-to-die
groups decided to press for legislative change rather than act outside the law.
After the Hemlock Society merged with a moderate group in 2004 to form Compassion
& Choices, Egbert and others split to form a more activist group. ~ Newsweek, Mar 15

Michael Cook
assisted suicide
euthanasia
FEN

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Michael Cook

Michael Cook edits BioEdge, a bioethics newsletter, and MercatorNet, an on-line magazine whose focus is human dignity. He writes from Sydney, Australia.

Latest posts by Michael Cook (see all)

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