Final Exit Digital Edition (KE 2011)
The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance
and Assisted Suicide for the Dying

by Derek Humphry,
founder of the Hemlock Society

Revised 3rd edition (updated July 2011)
ISBN 978-0-385-33653-6

Book Description:

'Final Exit' is the most famous D.I.Y. textbook on voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. There is unique step-by-step language for the competent adult who is terminally or hopelessly ill to bring their life to a peaceful, non-violent end if they wish. This can be achieved without Dr. Kevorkian or any doctor. Drug dosages and helium gas techniques are described and illustrated.

Much the same methods are used by Dignitas in Switzerland, and the right to die groups in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Colombia, and Belgium, countries where doctor-assisted dying is legal.

'Final Exit' outlines the legal complications connected with dying, death, hastened death, euthanasia laws, suicide, Living Wills and Advance Directives. The family aspect is discussed and the advisability of a 'suicide note' (with sample) is addressed. The full Oregon Death With Dignity Act, which permits physician-assisted suicide for the citizens of that state (and more recently Washington), is included as an appendices. The problems with life insurance and suicide are discussed, as are the ethics of double suicide.

This revised third edition of 'Final Exit' (2010 revision) is much changed from the earlier editions, which date from 1991 when it was, the 'Number One' bestseller on the New York Times nonfiction list. For instance, the first and second editions did not contain the helium gas technique now used by hundreds of people for their own euthanasia. The revised 3rd edition also includes new drug dosages plus updated guidance on helium hood method and exit bag (plastic bag) and other techniques.

In April of 2007, the national newspaper USA Today selected 'Final Exit' as one of the 25 most memorable books published in the last quarter century. The papers' editors and critics said: "The topic of assisted suicide exploded in controversy in the 90's, thanks to the Michigan pathologist Jack Kevorkian and his suicide machine, and this how-to manual [Final Exit] from an English journalist who helped his cancer-stricken first wife kill herself."

‘Final Exit’ has been translated into 12 languages, the latest one being Korean (2010). Some right-to-die groups use the book as a required primer for people considering hastening their end.

If you are asking the question 'what is assisted suicide?' or 'what is euthanasia and assisted death?' then this exit book provides the clearest answers. It has been ‘the gold standard’ of such books for 20 years. There is, as yet, no simple 'peaceful pill' for self euthanasia, and law reform is lagging behind public opinion, so until then 'Final Exit' may be the solution to protracted terminal suffering.

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The author, Derek Humphry, who now has more than 30 years experience in the death with dignity movement, helped his first wife Jean to die when suffering a lingering death from breast cancer. His book on that event, 'Jean's Way' is a cult classic. Five years after her death he founded the Hemlock Society. which he directed between 1980-1992.

Today Humphry runs the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization (ERGO), a nonprofit organization based outside of Eugene, Oregon. He is a policy adviser to the American group, the Final Exit Network, and to the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, of which he was president in 1988-1990.