Derek Humphry and the Right-to-Die
Fifty years ago, Mr. Humphry put a lethal amount of substances into his wife's coffee, along with some sugar to sweeten it, and she died within an hour. She was grateful because she was suffering and he was undoubtedly nervous since he faced years in jail and had to worry about their three children. They both believed in "assisted suicide" or "voluntary euthanasia", which was against the law in Britain. As he later said, "some laws are made to be broken." The case against him was dropped and Mr. Humphry made his way to the United States and later to Oregon where he just died at the age of 94. In that state he could have exited earlier if he chose to do so. Those of us who are grateful to have access to the MAID option, limited though it is, should pause to thank Derek Humphry.
I am doing so because it seems to me that the opponents of MAID get far more press than the proponents, particularly in the National Post. While I have not combed through all the MAID stories, there was this one from a few days ago which suggests that we should not celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision which made MAID possible: "A Decade of MAID Expansion: Slippery Slope "Became a Cliff," Yuan UYi Zhu, National Post, Feb. 1, 2025.
"February marks the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), in which the court unanimously ruled, against both basic logic and its own precedents, that the right to life, guaranteed by the Constitution, included the right to a state-assisted suicide through what came to be known euphemistically as Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID)."
Apparently if we are allowed to make the individual choice to die, there will be many other people eager to to take advantage of the opportunity to kill many more.
That interpretation was bluntly put by a non-ethicist. I am in favour of MAID and have indicated that in this post - Dementia Rising, which also mentions that the issue is a complex one, except perhaps for those who wish to deny us the personal right to die when we choose. Perhaps some additional perspective is provided by looking back 50 years, although the slopes were seen to be slippery even back then.
"Derek Humphry, Champion of Assisted-suicide Movement, Dies at 94: Mr. Humphry, a Former Journalist, Co-founded the Hemlock Society Years After Helping His Cancer-stricken Wife Take Her Own Life, Brian Murphy, Washington Post, Jan.25, 2025.
Jean Humphry’s cancer had spread to her bones, and drugs could no longer control the pain. She was 42. “She picked up the mug of coffee on her own volition and drank it down and just before she passed out she said, ‘Goodbye, my love,’” recalled Mr. Humphry Fifty minutes later she was dead, and Mr. Humphry was left with three young children and the knowledge that he broke British law by assisting his wife to take her life. The moment also set Mr. Humphry on a path to become one of the leaders of the right-to-die movement in the United States — co-founding the Hemlock Society, writing the bestseller “Final Exit” (1991) and helping push through a landmark law in Oregon in 1994 to legalize physician-assisted suicide."
‘Founding Father’ of Right-to-die Movement, Derek Humphry, Dies at 94 in Oregon; author of ‘Final Exit’," Kristine de Leon, The Oregonian, Jan. 28, 2025.
"In November 1994, when 51 percent of Oregon voters approved the Death with Dignity Act, supporters of medically assisted death could trace their first-in-the-nation victory to Humphry, “a British-born journalist with a soothing voice,” The Oregonian wrote that year….Some of Humphry’s views were considered extreme, even among supporters in the movement. For example, he supported physician-assisted death for severely ill people — not just terminally ill people. And he agreed philosophically with the most polarizing figure of the time, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, that euthanasia by lethal injection — sometimes called “voluntary” euthanasia — should be an option for people. Opponents called both of these stances slippery slopes."
"Derek Humphry," The Times, Jan. 23, 2025.
"Humphry believed that Jean would have died naturally about a month later. But by helping to hasten the end he had committed a crime punishable by up to 14 years in prison and one to which he openly admitted with the publication in 1978 of Jean's Way, an account of her assisted suicide.
The book shone a spotlight on a taboo subject, with Humphry arguing it was absurd and unjust that the Suicide Act of 1961 decriminalised suicide in England and Wales while deeming assistance illegal. His response to Jean's request was, he affirmed, "a duty of love between spouses".
The book triggered attention and debate and the director of public prosecutions ordered a police investigation into Jean's death. Interviewed by detectives, Humphry handed them a written confession but sensed they were more interested in the doctor who supplied the drugs. He refused to divulge the physician's identity and six months later the case was dropped…..
Resilience was also required as he fought for what he termed "self-deliverance" or "rational suicide", especially after the publication in 1991 of Final Exit, his explicit instruction manual. Some Christian fundamentalists declared him "Anti-Christ of the Month". More moderate voices feared it could be used by the non-terminally ill, such as people with depression, or for planning a murder. But the book became a bestseller in the US. "The more the churches, the ethicists and right-wing columnists railed against the moral implications of the book, the more the public went out to buy it," Humphry remarked. Librarians were less enamoured, since they kept having to order new copies as a consequence of understandably low return rates."
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