Derek Hanfrey, a British journalist, has helped his late wife to end her life, and is the best -selling suicide of suicide, as a pioneer in the death movement of the die. “Last exit” has now been published. January 2, in Eugene, Oregon. He was 94 years old.
His death in the hospice facility was announced by his family.
Hanfrey was a trick to speaking a factor in the talent and death of the populist, and lived a nationwide conversation for suicide supported by doctors in the early 1980s. The theory was beaten by medical ethics.
“He was a person who really put this principle on the American map,” said Prince Edward University Professor and said, “The concise history of euthanasia: Iron Dowgin, the author of life, death, god, and medicine. (2005) people who support the suicide are absolutely grateful.
In 1975, when Hanfrey was working as a reporter for the Sunday Times in London, his 22 -year -old wife, Jean -Humphrey, was at the end of the last -stage bone cancer. She wanted to help her die, hoping to avoid long -term suffering.
Hanfrey absorbed a fatal painkiller from a sympathetic doctor and mixed with coffee with his favorite mug.
“I took her to a mug and told her that she would drink it soon,” said Humfrey, Daily Records in Scotland. “Then I gave her hug, kissed her, and said goodbye.”
Hanfrey recorded his emotional, taboo, and legally raised pursuit of his wife in a hurry to his wife in Jeans Way (1979). This book, excerpted in newspapers around the world, was a sense. The reader sent a letter to the editor and discussed the suffering of loved ones. Many people wrote directly to Hanfrey.
“I wish we had a solution like you,” and the woman wrote and explained the last eight weeks of her husband's life as “fear.” “How beautiful, how” love “is. We have experienced the terrible “death” of the world of medicine by being forced by us and extending life in every possible way. “
In their letter, some readers petitioned for instructions to help their loved ones die. As a result, Humphrey had been remarried in California for the Los Angeles Times, so he decided to create an organization that defends the end of suicide and end -of -life rights.
His second wife, Ann Wicking Hanfrey, suggested that he would use Hemlock as a title. Jean's road. “
In August 1980, they rented the Los Angelels Press Club and announced the establishment of the Hemlock Association.
The organization has grown rapidly. In 1981, he issued a drug and dosage guide to inducing peaceful self -willingness. The group also conducted lobbying in the state assembly to enact the law to legally commit suicide Assisted suicide. In 1990, the Hemlock Association moved to Eugene. Until then, there were more than 30,000 members, but Die's right conversation had not yet reached most dinner table in the United States.
After Hanfrey announced “Final departure: the practicality of suicide to die,” it changed magnificently in 1991. This book is a 192 -page step -by -step guide, providing hints like a misman for leaving the suicide method in addition to the explanation of suicide methods.
“Unfortunately, if you have an obligation to end your life in a hospital or motel,” he wrote. I've heard that individuals leave generous hints to motel staff. “
This book was shot first in the hard -cover advice category of the New York Times Best Sellers list.
“It's now showing how great the euthanasia problem in our society,” said the 1991 Times, Dr. Arthur Caplan. 。 It is the biggest statement of protests about how medicine deals with terminal illness and dying. “
The reaction to the “last exit” was generally divided along the ideology line. The conservatives exploded it.
“What can I say about this new” book “? In a nutshell, Leon R. R. Kas at the University of Chicago, Leon R. R. Kas, wrote in a commentary magazine and called Hanfrey the “Lord of the Lord.” “I didn't want to read it, I don't want you to read it, it was never written, and of course it is not worthwhile to be dignified in a review. “
However, the progressive has accepted the book, even if public health experts have expressed concern that they could use it by depression people who were not late -stage illnesses.
“I read the” last exit “from curiosity, but I keep it for another reason. Once you can imagine the day you nursing cancer patients and the day you want to use it, “says New York Times Colam Nist Anna Quindren.
Rather than worrying about the contents of the book, Mr. Qulydren said, “You should look for a way to guarantee that dignified death can be used in places other than mall chain bookstores.”
Derek John Humphrey was born on April 29, 1930 in a British birth. His father, Reiston Martin Hanfrey, was a travel salesman. His mother, Betin (Dagan), was a fashion model before getting married.
After graduating from school at the age of 15, Derek got a job as a newspaper messenger. The following year, Bristol Evening World hired him as a reporter. He continued to report Manchester Evening News and daily mail before moving to the Sunday Times in London and Los Angelel Sthams.
Humphry wrote before looking at a book about death, “Because they are black,” (1971), a racial discrimination, written as Gus John, a black social worker. “Police's power and black man” (1972), scottish yard racism and corruption.
Hanfrey was a polarized person in the exercise to the right.
In 1990, he and Wiki Hanfrey divorced and fought violently in the news media. She called him “fraud” and accused her as she was diagnosed with cancer. Hanfrey denied the claim.
“This was a very unstable marriage,” he told the New York Times in 1990. I lost my house. I lived in a motel for three months. “
Wiki Hanfrey committed suicide in October 1991.
In a video recorded the day before, she expressed anxiety about the work they went with, helping their parents to finish their lives at home.
“We both left the house, thinking we were both murderers,” she said on the video.
He told the Times that Hanfrey entered the “Damage Control” mode. He put a half -page advertisement in his dissertation explaining his side of the story.
“Sadly, Anne was suffering from emotional issues in most cases in her life,” said advertisements, saying, “Suicide was not part of Hemlock's beliefs for depression.” Ta.
The reservations of Wake Humfrey's death and the exercise to the right have caused tension in the hemlock society. Hanfrey resigned as an executive director in 1992 and began researching euthanasia and a guidance organization.
The Hemlock Association was ultimately divided into several new groups, including the last exit network that Hanfrey supported.
He married Gretchen Crock in 1991. She survived him with his three sons from his first marriage. Three grandchildren. And one GREAT grandson.
Ralei Brown, the exit network, the end of the end of the end -stage patient, to plan to die, sometimes trusts her client that has given Hanfrey and the “final exit” to them. He said he was.
“This was the Hemrock Association and the final exit that really exceeded the threshold that led to a normal American living room,” said the Hemrock Association. “You can talk about it at the Thanksgiving dinner table.”
If you have the idea of ​​suicide, call 988 or to reach suicide and crisis lifelines with textbooks. SpeakingofsuiCide.com/resources An additional resource list.