Derek Humphrey, a British-born journalist whose experience helping his terminally ill wife end his life, became a crusader in the right-to-die movement and author of the best-selling suicide guide “The Final Exit” to publish, died. on Jan. 2 in Eugene, Ore. He was 94 years old.
His death, in a hospital, was announced by his family.
With a public spirit and a knack for speaking matter-of-factly about death, Mr. Humphrey almost single-handedly steered a national conversation about physician-assisted suicide in the early 1980s, at a time when it The idea was nothing more than anything. Esoteric theory revolves around medical ethics.
“He was the one who really put the cause on the map in America,” said Ian Dubiggan, a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island and its author. “A Brief History of Autonomy: Life, Death, God, and Medicine.” (2005). “People who support the concept of physician-assisted suicide absolutely owe him a lot.”
In 1975, Mr. Humphrey was working as a reporter for the Sunday Times of London when Jane Humphrey, his wife of 22 years, was in the final stages of terminal bone cancer. Hoping to avoid prolonged suffering, she asks him to help her die.
Mr. Humphrey obtained a lethal dose of painkillers from a sympathetic doctor and mixed them with coffee in his favorite mug.
“I took her mug and told her she would die instantly if she drank it,” Mr Humphrey told Scotland’s Daily Record. “Then I hugged her, kissed her and we said goodbye.”
Mr. Humphrey described his emotional, taboo and legally fraught pursuit of his wife’s early death in the book “Jane’s Way” (1979). Quoted in newspapers around the world, it was a sensation. Readers sent letters to the editor discussing the suffering of their loved ones. Many wrote directly to Mr. Humphrey.
“I wish we had a solution like yours,” wrote one woman, describing the last eight weeks of her husband’s life as “horrendous.” “How much more beautiful, how much more ‘love’. We did what others forced us to do and experienced the horrible ‘death’ that the medical world prolongs life in every possible way.
In their letters, some readers asked for instructions to help their loved ones die. This led Mr. Humphrey, now remarried and working in California for The Los Angeles Times, to think about creating an organization that advocates suicide and life for the terminally ill. Advocate for the rights of the end.
Ann Wicket Humphrey, his second wife, suggested using the word Hemlock as the organization’s title, “arguing that most Americans associate the word with the death of Socrates, a man who Death discussed and planned,” Mr. Humphrey later wrote. The latest edition of “Jane’s Way”.
In August 1980, he and his wife announced the formation of the Hemlock Society by renting the Los Angeles Press Club, which they ran out of the garage of their home in Santa Monica.
The organization grew rapidly. In 1981, he released “Let Me Die Before I Wake”, “a guide to medicines and diets for peaceful self-relief”. The group also lobbied state legislatures to legalize assisted suicide. In 1990, the Hemlock Society moved to Eugene. By then it had more than 30,000 members, but the right-to-die conversation had not yet reached most dinner tables in America.
That changed dramatically in 1991, when Mr. Humphrey published “Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying.” The book was a 192-page step-by-step guide that explained how to commit suicide as well as tips on how to get out gracefully.
“If you are unfortunately obliged to end your life in a hospital or motel,” he wrote, “it is kind to leave a note apologizing for the shock and inconvenience to the staff. I have also heard that an individual motel Leave a generous tip to the staff.
“Final Exit” quickly rose to No. 1 in the hardcover advice category of the New York Times bestseller list.
“It’s an indication of how big a problem euthanasia is now in our society,” biologist Dr. Arthur Caplan told The Times in 1991. “It’s scary and disturbing, and this kind of sales figure is a shot across the bow. . . . It’s the loudest statement of protest against how medicine is dealing with disease and death.
Reaction to “Final Exit” was generally divided along ideological lines. Conservatives condemned it.
“What can one say about this new ‘book’? In one word: evil,” University of Chicago biologist Leon R. Cass “I didn’t want to read it, I don’t want you to read it. It should never have been written, and it doesn’t deserve to be dignified with a review,” he wrote in Commentary magazine, calling Mr. Humphrey “Lord High Executioner”. , let alone an article.”
But progressives embraced the book, even as public health experts expressed concern that its methods could be used by depressed people who were not terminally ill.
“I read ‘Final Exit’ out of curiosity, but I’ll keep it for another reason – because I can imagine, once I’ve nursed a cancer patient, the day I’d want to use it,” New York Times columnist Anna Quindlin wrote. She added, “And if that day comes, whose business is it, really, but mine and those I love?”
Rather than worry about the book’s content, Ms. Quindlin said, “we should be looking for ways to make sure that dignified death is available in places other than chain bookstores.”
Derek John Humphrey was born on April 29, 1930 in Bath, England. His father, Royston Martin Humphry, was a traveling salesman. His mother, Bethene (Dugan) Humphrey, had been a fashion model before marriage.
After leaving school at age 15, Derek got a job as a newspaper messenger. The following year, the Bristol Evening World hired him as a reporter. He went on to report for the Manchester Evening News and The Daily Mail before moving to the Sunday Times of London and then the Los Angeles Times.
Before turning to books about death, Mr. Humphrey wrote “Because They’re Black” (1971), an examination of racial discrimination by Gus John, a black social activist, and “Police Power and Black People” ( 1972) was written with Racism and corruption at Scotland Yard.
Mr. Humphrey was also a polarizing figure within the right-to-die movement.
In 1990, he and Ms. Wicket Humphrey divorced and had a bitter battle in the news media. She called him a “cheat”, accusing him of leaving her because she had been diagnosed with cancer. Mr Humphrey denied the allegation.
“It was a very volatile marriage,” she told The New York Times in 1990. “It’s very painful, like Jane’s death. I’ve lost my home. I’ve been in a motel for three months.
Ms Wicket Humphrey committed suicide in October 1991.
In a video recorded the day before, she expressed doubts about the work they had done together, including helping her parents end their lives at home.
“I walked out of that house thinking we were both murderers,” she said in the video, which was reviewed by The Times.
Mr. Humphrey went into “damage control” mode, he told The Times. He placed a half page ad in the newspaper giving his side of the story.
“Sadly, Anne struggled with emotional problems for most of her life,” the ad said, adding that “suicide due to depression was never part of Hemlock’s canon.”
Concerns about Ms. Wicket Humphrey’s death and the right-to-die movement created tension in the Hemlock Society. Mr. Humphrey resigned as executive director in 1992 and started the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization.
The Hemlock Society eventually split into several new groups, including Final exit networkwhich Mr. Humphrey helped to start.
He married Gretchen Crocker in 1991. three grandchildren; and a grandson.
Laurie Brown, a Final Exit Network “exit guide” who helps terminally ill patients plan for their death, said in an interview that her clients sometimes call Mr. Humphrey and “Final Exit” their lives. Credit for giving courage to finish.
“It was the Hemlock Society and the book ‘Final Exit’ that crossed the line into the living rooms of ordinary Americans,” Ms. Brown said. “You talk about it at the Thanksgiving dinner table.” can talk.”
If you are thinking about suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources For a list of additional resources.
