 | |
| Formation | 1980 |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Educational |
| Website | euthanasia.cc |
Exit is a not-for-profit, pro-euthanasia organisation based in Scotland that lobbies for and provides information about voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. It has particularly focused on research and publication of works which provide information about suicide methods, including How to Die With Dignity, the first book published on the subject.
Exit was formed in 1980 in Scotland to research and publish information on suicide for people suffering from serious illnesses. Originally part of a UK Society formed in 1935, it broke away when the parent group vacillated over producing such guidance. [1]
In 1980, [2] as Scottish Exit, it published the first [3] [4] [5] suicide guide in the world, How to Die With Dignity by Dr George Mair. [6] Other suicide books by authors around the world soon followed. [7] The Society was originally called Scottish Exit, a branch of a parent London society. When the parent group's plans to publish such a book were delayed, the Scottish group formed an independent society dedicated to such publications. [8] During its history, it has also been known as The Voluntary Euthanasia Society of Scotland, or the Scottish Voluntary Euthanasia Society, [9] reverting to the name of Exit in 2000. [10]
How to Die With Dignity was followed by various supplements as new information became available. In 1993, authors CK Smith and CG Docker collaborated on a new book, Departing Drugs, distinguished by extensive literature searches into various drugs, and peer review. They convened the International Drugs Consensus Working Party, an unpaid research collective, [11] [12] to help sift the evidence and finalize their results. The book was published in several languages as a non-profit venture and distributed privately by Dutch, Spanish, German, Canadian and American organisations. [13] Initial legal uncertainties and concerns about adverse publicity however persuaded Exit to release it in Scotland only under the title of a new 'Supplement' to How to Die With Dignity. Docker & Smith's technical data in support of Departing Drugs was published in a separate volume called Beyond Final Exit, with another contributing author, Bruce Dunn, whose chapter on inert gases laid the foundations for the 'helium method' of suicide. [14]
In 2007, a major revision was needed and Exit published Five Last Acts, a larger book (187 pages) that detailed the use of helium and four other main methods of rational suicide, most of which were not covered in Departing Drugs. A similar methodology was used, examining the science behind its assertions. The Five Last Acts series is distinguished by footnotes and citations to evidence. Although the first edition was made available only to members of Exit and other right-to-die societies under strict conditions, such distribution methods were augmented in subsequent editions by placing these more substantial books on general release. Five Last Acts II followed in 2010, [15] and Five Last Acts - The Exit Path in 2013. [16] A major update to the latter was released in May 2015 after concerns had been raised over helium balloon gas being diluted with air by some manufacturers. [17] [18] Exit then published the world's first guide to using welding gas nitrogen as an alternative. [19]
Exit worked for the acceptance of the living will (Advance health care directive), initially advocating a living will using a Scottish legal instrument known as the Tutor Dative, [20] and then revising its templates in accordance with developing legislation and the use of Values Histories. [21] Exit highlights both the benefits and shortcomings of advanced health care directives [22] and has sought to establish proper understanding by means of contributing chapters in both the academic [23] and legal [24] press. Exit's Director, Chris Docker, has worked for the organisation since 1980. He holds a post-graduate degree from Glasgow University and has lectured at undergraduate and post-graduate level, also writing on end-of-life issues for academic students (Dartmouth), [25] [26] and the legal profession, [27] and winning an award for his research into death by refusing food and liquids.
Exit uses the Carver Model of Policy Governance [28] in the running of its affairs to ensure strict adherence to its aims. Exit accepts members worldwide. It publishes a substantial magazine, Exit Newsletter, with updates on self-deliverance and living wills, and a mixture of academic and light-reading articles on these subjects. Contributors have included well-known names including Peter Singer, Helga Kuhse, Colin Brewer, Faye Girsh, Sheila McLean, Michael Irwin, Derek Humphry, Arthur Caplan, Kenyon Mason, Ludovic Kennedy, Rev. A Bennett, Alexander McCall Smith, John Beloff, (Bishop) Michael Hare Duke, Oswald Hanfling, Wendy Savage, (Bishop) Alastair Haggart, Philip Nitschke, Janet Radcliffe Richards and Robin Downie. [29] It conducts full-day hands-on workshops for members. [30] Exit works within existing law so does not engage in civil disobedience or one-one-one direct assistance in suicide. Exit is independent and not connected with other organisations of the same or similar name, such as the Australian group, Exit International; the Finnish group, Exitus; the Italian group called Exit, or the two German Groups, Exit ADMD and EXIT-Deutsche Schweiz) but networks with scientific groups and its members worldwide.
Exit advocates a 'permissive' model for legal reform to allow 'exceptions to the rule' against euthanasia or assisted suicide. [31] It was involved in a major initiative of Glasgow University's Institute of Law & Ethics in Medicine [32] to look at the feasibility of a law on physician-assisted suicide for the UK. [33]
Euthanasia is the practise of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering.
Assisted suicide is suicide undertaken with the aid of another person. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is suicide that is assisted by a physician or another healthcare provider. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifies under the physician-assisted suicide laws for that location, the physician's assistance is usually limited to writing a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs.
Philip Haig Nitschke is an Australian humanist, author, former physician, and founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International. He campaigned successfully to have a legal euthanasia law passed in Australia's Northern Territory and assisted four people in ending their lives before the law was overturned by the Government of Australia. Nitschke was the first doctor in the world to administer a legal, voluntary, lethal injection, after which the patient activated the syringe using a computer. Nitschke states that he and his group are regularly subject to harassment by authorities. In 2015, Nitschke burned his medical practising certificate in response to what he saw as onerous conditions that violated his right to free speech, imposed on him by the Medical Board of Australia. Nitschke has been referred to in the media as "Dr Death" or "the Elon Musk of assisted suicide".
The right to die is a concept based on the opinion that human beings are entitled to end their life or undergo voluntary euthanasia. Possession of this right is often understood that a person with a terminal illness, incurable pain, or without the will to continue living, should be allowed to end their own life, use assisted suicide, or to decline life-prolonging treatment. The question of who, if anyone, may be empowered to make this decision is often the subject of debate.
Final Exit is a 1991 book written by Derek Humphry, a British-born American journalist, author, and assisted suicide advocate who co-founded the now-defunct Hemlock Society in 1980 and co-founded the Final Exit Network in 2004. The book was first published in 1991 by the Hemlock Society US in hardback. The following year, its 2nd edition was published by Dell in trade paperback. The current updated edition was published in 2010.
Voluntary euthanasia is the ending of a person's life at their request in order to relieve them of suffering. Voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) have been the focus of intense debate in recent years.
Derek Humphry is a British-born American journalist and author notable as a proponent of legal assisted suicide and the right to die. In 1980, he co-founded the Hemlock Society and, in 2004, after that organization dissolved, he co-founded Final Exit Network. From 1988 to 1990, he was president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies and is the current president of the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization (ERGO).
The Hemlock Society was an American right-to-die and assisted suicide advocacy organization which existed from 1980 to 2003. It was co-founded in Santa Monica, California by British author and activist Derek Humphry, his wife Ann Wickett Humphry and Gerald A. Larue. It relocated to Oregon in 1988 and, according to Humphry, had several homes over the course of its life. The group took its name from Conium maculatum, a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family. The name was a direct reference to the method by which the Athenian philosopher Socrates took his life in 399 BC, as described in Plato's Phaedo.
The World Federation of Right to Die Societies is an international federation of associations that promote access to voluntary euthanasia. It holds regular international meetings on dying and death.
Euthanasia is currently illegal in all 50 states of the United States. Assisted suicide is legal in 10 jurisdictions in the US: Washington, D.C. and the states of California, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Maine, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Washington. The status of assisted suicide is disputed in Montana, though currently authorized per the Montana Supreme Court's ruling in Baxter v. Montana that "nothing in Montana Supreme Court precedent or Montana statutes [indicates] that physician aid in dying is against public policy."
Non-voluntary euthanasia is euthanasia conducted when the explicit consent of the individual concerned is unavailable, such as when the person is in a persistent vegetative state, or in the case of young children. It contrasts with involuntary euthanasia, when euthanasia is performed against the will of the patient.
Dignity in Dying is a United Kingdom nationwide campaigning organisation. It is funded by voluntary contributions from members of the public, and as of December 2010, it claimed to have 25,000 actively subscribing supporters. The organisation declares it is independent of any political, religious or other affiliations, and has the stated primary aim of campaigning for individuals to have greater choice and more control over end-of-life decisions, so as to alleviate any suffering they may be undergoing as they near the end of their life.
Exit International is an international non-profit organisation advocating legalisation of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. It was previously known as the Voluntary Euthanasia Research Foundation.
The legality of euthanasia varies depending on the country. Efforts to change government policies on euthanasia of humans in the 20th and 21st centuries have met limited success in Western countries. Human euthanasia policies have also been developed by a variety of NGOs, most notably medical associations and advocacy organizations. As of 2023, euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and all six states of Australia. Euthanasia was briefly legal in the Northern Territory between 1996 and 1997, but was overturned by a federal law. In 2021, a Peruvian court allowed euthanasia for a single person, Ana Estrada.
A euthanasia device is a machine engineered to allow an individual to die quickly with minimal pain. The most common devices are those designed to help terminally ill people die by voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide without prolonged pain. They may be operated by a second party, such as a physician, or by the person wishing to die. There is an ongoing debate on the ethics of euthanasia and the use of euthanasia devices.
Euthanasia became legal in New Zealand when the End of Life Choice Act 2019 took full effect on 7 November 2021. It is illegal to "aid and abet suicide" under Section 179 of the New Zealand Crimes Act 1961. The clauses of this act make it an offence to "incite, procure or counsel" and "aid and abet" someone else to commit suicide, regardless of whether a suicide attempt is made or not. Section 179 covers both coercion to undertake assisted suicide and true suicide, such as that caused by bullying. This will not change under the End of Life Choices Act 2019, which has provisions on coercion of terminally ill people.
Active euthanasia is illegal in the United Kingdom.
Jean's Way, a book by Derek Humphry, is an account of Humphry's terminally ill wife's planned suicide from suffering. The book is his first on the issue of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Involuntary euthanasia occurs when euthanasia is performed on a person who would be able to provide informed consent, but does not, either because they do not want to die, or because they were not asked.
Assisted suicide is the ending of one's own life with the assistance of another. Physician-assisted suicide is medical assistance in helping another person end their own life for the purpose of relieving their suffering, and voluntary euthanasia is the act of ending the life of another, also for the purpose of relieving their suffering. The phrase "assisted dying" is often used instead of physician-assisted suicide by proponents of legalisation and the media when used in the context of a medically assisted suicide for the purpose of relieving suffering. "Assisted dying" is also the phrase used by politicians when bills are proposed in parliament. Assisted suicide is illegal under English law.
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