DA Sends Assisted Suicide Case To Grand Jury

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Doreen Dunn had lived in pain for a decade by the time she killed herself in May 2007.

After consulting with the nonprofit Final Exit Network, she used helium and a plastic bag to end her life on the couch of her Apple Valley home.

Now, an investigation of the 57-year-old's death puts Minnesota at the center of a national debate over assisted suicide.

Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom will present evidence to a grand jury this week seeking indictments against the Georgia-based Final Exit Network and a handful of its members, accusing them of breaking state laws against aiding a suicide and interfering with a body.

It's the third time in recent years that prosecutors around the nation have gone after the group, which mostly fought off high-profile criminal charges in Arizona and Georgia.

The network insists that its volunteers are within the law because they don't provide equipment or physically participate in suicides, only offering information and support, sometimes by being present during the suicide.

"We do give explanations of how to do it," said Robert Rivas, a Florida attorney for the Final Exit Network. "We don't advise anybody to do it."
[...]

The network says it mostly operates online and over the phone, receiving requests from people around the country who want to arrange an "exit."

Dunn made an "exit request" in January 2007, writing in a letter that she was "living with unbearable, excruciating chronic pain that has spread throughout my whole body since 12/96."

Toward the end of the handwritten letter, signed Doreen Gunderson Dunn, she said, "Have fought the good fight for 10 yr. to try & get better but it is futile and without an exit will be left in some nursing home in unbearable pain for who knows how many years."

She also submitted a note from her doctor, released in part by the network Monday, that confirmed she was completely disabled and suffered from multiple painful conditions, some related to a 1996 medical procedure.

"She had sought every form of treatment that medical science could provide and was told that she had really no choice but to live with these conditions," Rivas said.

He said the Final Exit Network requires such documentation. Once a person is deemed to be suffering from an incurable and chronic -- but not necessarily terminal -- condition and found mentally competent, the group offers an "exit guide" and meetings with volunteers who will attend a suicide, but not assist in one, if requested.

"Nobody likes to die alone," Rivas said.

Two volunteers from the Final Exit Network traveled to Minnesota the day Dunn died. Rivas said he did not know whether they were with Dunn.

He said Dunn did not want her family, including her then-estranged husband, to be aware of her plan.
[...]

Dakota County's investigation began in the wake of a highly publicized and unsuccessful attempt by Georgia prosecutors to go after the network.

Rivas said the Georgia Bureau of Investigation distributed information it had discovered about the network's members to other law enforcement agencies across the country.

"Of all the hundreds of agencies that received this information, not one has bitten on the bait except Dakota County, Minnesota," Rivas said.

The Georgia criminal charges were dismissed in February after the state's supreme court struck down the state's law criminalizing assisted suicide. The network's lawyers had argued that it violated free speech rights under the First Amendment.

Rivas said he expects to make the same arguments in opposition to Minnesota's law against assisted suicide, which he said is being used to target the network as a whole and four individuals: Dr. Lawrence Egbert of Baltimore, the network's medical director in 2007; Jerry Dincin of Highland Park, Ill., an "exit guide" who worked on Dunn's case; Thomas Goodwin of Atlanta, and Punta Gorda, Fla.; and Roberta Massey of Delaware.

There's a difference in Minnesota -- a law making it a misdemeanor to tamper with a body.

Rivas said network volunteers will, if requested, remove evidence of a suicide after the death, but reiterated that he did not know what they did for Dunn.

"It's possible they followed the normal routine," he said.

Dakota County Medical Examiner Dr. Lindsey Thomas, whose office did Dunn's autopsy, declined to talk specifically abot the case.

But generally, she said, had it been reported that there was a helium tank and a plastic bag at the scene of a death, she would consider suicide a possible cause.

The Final Exit Network's methods have also come under scrutiny in Arizona, when four members -- two of whom also figure in the Minnesota inquiry -- faced felony charges.

In 2011, a jury found Egbert not guilty and deadlocked in the case against another volunteer, who later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. (HERE on D'D)

"[We're] not surprised that it would pop up again somewhere else," said Frank Kavanaugh of the network's advisory board. "We have to deal with them one by one. We do feel that we stay on the right side of the law."

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/150523235.html

[Starbuck]

I think if you're deemed mentally stable, are in so much pain it's unbearable, it should be your choice to die. And they are right, most people don't want to die alone. (I personally would prefer to be alone) so I applaud companies like this that are willing to put themselves out there to make it easier. (and no, I don't believe it should be an easy decision, but if it's the one you're going to make anyway, there should be help).

[moonlilly1981]

Another case of a person who was suffering from chronic in-curable pain who was ready to leave this world. Besides the law, what is the real "moral" reasoning behind not allowing a person who is ill with no cure to take their own lives?

This is taken from my lecture notes from the latest and greatest psychology class I took.

* Euthanasia: The act of painlessly ending the lives of individuals from an incurable disease or sever disability ( (not from my notes this is my own opinion) we live in a society where we are told it is the humane thing to do for a pet, but is unacceptable to do for a human. )

*Passive Euthanasia: Treatment is withheld. ( This is what most hospices do. Treatment is withheld and the patient is made "comfortable until their passing. ) Passive Euthanasia is not against the law in the United States.

*Active Euthanasia: Death is deliberately induced. This is illegal in all by two of the states in the United States. But a person has to be terminally ill to choose active euthanasia.

People in the united states tend to be death avoiders and death deniers. Death in the united states is often lonely, long, and painful. In most societies death is not viewed as the end of existence because the spiritual body lives on. Death is embraced by those cultures, and often the person is surrounded by loved ones.

*also taken from my notes ( I really loved this class btw ) A good death involves physical comfort, support from loved ones, acceptance, and appropriate medical care.

I support those who fight to live, and I support those who choose to die with what they consider dignity. I wish our law makers would allow them to do so.