Saturday, January 28, 2017

Don't Drink Hemlock: Compassion & Choices' Mission Is to Promote Suicide

Hemlock
The push to enact HB 201 (assisted suicide/euthanasia)  is being
spearheaded by the suicide advocacy group, Compassion
& Choices.

Compassion & Choices was formed in 2004 as the result of a merger/takeover of two other organizations.[1] One of these organizations was the former Hemlock Society, originally formed by Derek Humphry.[2]

In 2011, Humphry was the keynote speaker at Compassion & Choices’ annual meeting here in Washington State.[3] He was also in the news as a promoter of mail-order suicide kits.[4] This was after a depressed 29 year old man used one of the kits to kill himself.[5] Compassion & Choices’ newsletter, promoting Humphry’s presentation, references him as “the father of the modern movement for choice.”[6] Compassion & Choices’ mission is to promote suicide.

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Footnotes:

[1]  Ian Dowbiggin, A Concise History of Euthanasia 146 (2007)(“In 2003, [the] Hemlock [Society] changed its name to End-of-Life Choices, which merged with Compassion in Dying in 2004, to form Compassion & Choices.”).  Accord. Compassion & Choices Newsletter at https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/humphry-keynote.pdf
[2]  Id.
[3]  Compassion & Choices Newsletter, regarding Humphry’s October 22, 2011 speaking date, at https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/humphry-keynote.pdf
[4]  See Jack Moran, "Police kick in door in confusion over suicide kit,” The Register-Guard, September 21, 2011 (“"A spotlight was cast on the mail-order suicide kit business after a 29-year-old Eugene man committed suicide in December using a helium hood kit. The Register-Guard traced the $60 kit to [the company, which] has no website and does no advertising; clients find [the] address through the writings of Humphry.")(Emphasis added)
[5]  Id.
[6]  Compassion & Choices Newsletter, at A-91, https://choiceisanillusion.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/humphry-keynote.pdf