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Posted on 02/23/2026 1:37:00 PM PST by Morgana
A Texas man has died after he and his ex-wife reportedly worked together to plan and carry out his suicide.
Joseph Cheffo was found dead in his Odessa home on February 13. Though assisted suicide is illegal in Texas, authorities allege that his ex-wife and primary caretaker, Sarah Regmund, helped facilitate his death after being in contact with Final Exit Network. Investigators say a copy of Final Exit by Derek Humphry was found near his bed.
The book, written for the terminally ill, goes beyond arguing for “the right to die.” It provides instructions. In one disturbing line, it states:
“Ugh! The plastic bag! Agreed. Not very aesthetic, but not so bad with a little prior practice to become accustomed to it.”
When Regmund was arrested, she admitted that she had prepared the items Cheffo ultimately used in the suicide months earlier and had placed the gas canister in his room ahead of time.
She said she waited one to two hours before returning, at which point she found him unresponsive and called for help. According to a police report obtained by the Odessa American, she also acknowledged moving a tank of compressed gas into the room, which had been connected to a plastic bag over Cheffo’s head.
Another quote from the book advises:
“If you have to help a person die, say nothing. Let the police do their own sleuthing.”
These are not words of comfort, support, or medical care. They are procedural: cold, calculated, and detached from the sacredness of Life.
Cheffo’s life had changed dramatically after a severe reaction to prescribed medication left him in chronic pain and struggling physically. But he was not terminal. In fact, he had spoken publicly last April about slowly regaining some function, even while facing daily challenges.
Yet the message embedded in Final Exit is clear: fear decline, avoid dependence, control the ending.
Critics have long warned that this framing reinforces fear of disability and aging, undervalues hospice and other end-of-life care, and subtly suggests that dependence equals a loss of dignity. When dignity becomes defined by independence, the elderly, disabled, and chronically ill are left wondering whether their lives are still worth living.
True compassion does not hand someone instructions on how to die. It manages pain, offers support, and reminds the suffering that their value does not disappear when their strength does.
Joseph Cheffo’s story is heartbreaking. Chronic illness is real. Pain is real. But the answer to suffering is never eliminating the sufferer.
Every human life has inherent dignity — not because it is easy or independent, but because it is human. And no book should ever teach otherwise.
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Here is more on this story from a local news station.
If anyone is willing to help you kill yourself, it would be the ex.
I was thinking about that.
GAH! I’d be suicidal, too!
Why? That was his ex wife. Plus he was no prize either.
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