Derek Humphry, a key figure in the Right to Die movement, dies at the age of 94

Derek Humphry, the British-born journalist whose experience helping his terminally ill wife end her life led him to become a pioneering crusader in the right-to-die movement and publish his best-selling suicide guide “Final Exit” on Jan. 2 in Eugene, State, has died. Oregon, he was 94 years aged.

His family announced his death in the hospice.

With a populist flair and a knack for speaking matter-of-factly about death, Mr. Humphry almost single-handedly sparked a national conversation about physician-assisted suicide in the early 1980s, when the idea was little more than an esoteric theory rejected by medical ethicists.

“He was the one who really put this case on the map in America,” said Ian Dowbiggin, a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island and author of the book “A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God and Medicine” (2005). “People who support the concept of physician-assisted suicide absolutely owe him a large thank you.”

In 1975, Mr. Humphry was working as a reporter for The Sunday Times of London when Jean Humphry, his wife of 22 years, was in the final stages of terminal bone cancer. Hoping to avoid long-term suffering, she asked him to aid her die.

Mr. Humphry bought a lethal dose of painkillers from a kind doctor and mixed them with coffee in his favorite mug.

“I took her cup and told her if she drank it she would die instantly,” Humphry told The Daily Record in Scotland. “Then I hugged her and kissed her and we said goodbye.”

Mr. Humphry chronicled the emotional, taboo and law-laced pursuit of his wife’s hastened death in “Jean’s Way” (1979). The book, fragments of which appeared in newspapers around the world, caused a sensation. Readers sent letters to the editor in which they discussed the suffering of their loved ones. Many wrote directly to Mr. Humphry.

“I wish we had a solution like yours,” the woman wrote, describing the last eight weeks of her husband’s life as “horror.” “How much more stunning, how much more ‘love’. We did what others forced us to do and experienced the terrible ‘death’ that the medical world causes by prolonging life in every possible way.”

In their letters, some readers pleaded for instructions on how to aid their loved ones die. That prompted Mr. Humphry, who had already remarried and was working in California for the Los Angeles Times, to consider forming an organization that advocated for assisted suicide and end-of-life rights for the terminally ill.

Ann Wickett Humphry, his second wife, suggested using Hemlock as a title, “arguing that most Americans associate the word with the death of Socrates, the man who discussed and planned his death,” Mr. Humphry later wrote in an updated edition of “Jean’s Way.”

In August 1980, they rented out the Los Angeles Press Club to announce the formation of the Hemlock Society, announcing from the garage of their Santa Monica home.

The organization grew rapidly. In 1981, it published “Let Me Die Before I Wake,” a guide to drugs and doses intended to induce “peaceful self-sufficiency.” The group also lobbied state legislatures to pass laws legalizing assisted suicide. In 1990, the Hemlock Society moved to Eugene. By then it had more than 30,000 members, but the conversation about the right to die had not yet reached most dinner tables in America.

The situation changed spectacularly in 1991, when Humphry published the book “Final Exit: Practical Aspects of Self-Sufficiency and Assisted Suicide for the Dying.” The book was a 192-page step-by-step guide that, in addition to explaining suicide methods, included Miss Manners-like tips on how to exit gracefully.

“If you are unfortunately forced to end your life in a hospital or motel,” he wrote, “it is a good idea to leave a note to the staff apologizing for the shock and inconvenience. I also heard of someone who left a generous tip for the motel staff.

The book quickly rose to number one in the hardcover advice category on the Fresh York Times bestseller list.

“It shows how stern the problem of euthanasia is in our society today,” bioethicist Dr. Arthur Caplan told The Times in 1991. “It’s terrifying and disturbing, and these kinds of sales figures are spot on. “This is the loudest expression of protest against the way medicine deals with incurable disease and dying.”

Reactions to the “final exit” were generally divided along ideological lines. Conservatives criticized this.

“What can you say about this fresh ‘book’? In one word: evil” – a bioethicist from the University of Chicago Leon R. Kass he wrote in Commentary magazine, calling Mr. Humphry “Lord High Executioner.” “I didn’t want to read it, I don’t want you to read it. It should never have been written and does not deserve to be honored with a review, let alone an article.”

But progressives embraced the book even though public health experts raised concerns that its methods could be used by depressed people who are not terminally ill.

“I read ‘Final Exit’ out of curiosity, but I’m keeping it for another reason – because I can imagine that someday, while caring for a cancer patient, the day will come when I might want to employ it.” – The Fresh York Times columnist Anna Quindlen wrote, adding: “And if that day comes, whose business is it anyway, if not mine and those I love?”

Instead of worrying about the book’s contents, Ms. Quindlen said, “we should be looking for ways to ensure a dignified death in places other than the chain bookstore in the mall.”

Derek John Humphry was born on April 29, 1930 in Bath, England. His father, Royston Martin Humphry, was a traveling salesman. His mother, Bettine (Duggan) Humphry, was a model before her marriage.

After leaving school at the age of 15, Derek got a job as a courier for a newspaper. The following year, The Bristol Evening World hired him as a reporter. He then worked for The Manchester Evening News and The Daily Mail before moving to London’s The Sunday Times and then the Los Angeles Times.

Before turning to books about death, Humphry wrote Because They’re Black (1971), an analysis of racial discrimination co-written with Gus John, a black social worker; and Police Power and Black People (1972) about racism and corruption at Scotland Yard.

Mr. Humphry was a polarizing figure even in the right-to-die movement.

In 1990, he and Mrs. Wickett Humphry divorced and argued bitterly in the media. She called him a “fraudster,” accusing him of leaving her because of her cancer diagnosis. Mr Humphry denied the allegations.

“It was a very rocky marriage,” he told The Fresh York Times in 1990. “It is extremely painful, as painful as Jean’s death. I lost my home; I’ve been living in a motel for three months.

Mrs. Wickett Humphry 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 left that house thinking we were both murderers,” she said in the recording reviewed by The Times.

Mr Humphry went into “damage control” mode, he told The Times. He placed a half-page ad in the newspaper explaining his side of the story.

“Unfortunately, Ann was plagued by emotional problems for much of her life,” the ad says, adding that “suicide due to depression was never part of the Hemlock credo.”

The death of Mrs. Wickett Humphry and reservations about the right to die movement created tension within the Hemlock Society. Mr. Humphry resigned as executive director in 1992 and founded the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization.

The Hemlock Society eventually split into several fresh groups, including Final exit networkwhich Mr. Humphry helped start.

He married Gretchen Crocker in 1991. She survives him along with three sons from his first marriage; three grandchildren; and one great-grandson.

Lowrey Brown, an “exit guide” with the Final Exit network who helps terminally ill patients plan for their deaths, said in an interview that her clients sometimes appreciate Mr. Humphry and Final Exit for giving them the courage to end their lives.

“It was the Hemlock Society and the book ‘Final Exit’ that really stepped up to the plate in bringing this topic into the living rooms of everyday Americans as a topic of discussion,” Ms. Brown said. “You could talk about it at the Thanksgiving table.”

If you are having suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Hotline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.