Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Man uses 'Final Exit' as suicide guide
UPI ^ | 1/24/09 | UPI

Posted on 01/25/2009 9:42:48 AM PST by wagglebee

DES MOINES, Iowa, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- An Iowa man who apparently took his own life was found dead with the book and DVD versions of the suicide guide "Final Exit" close to hand.

Des Moines police said Derek Mott, 56, also had a list on his desk of needed items for a suicide device described in the book, The Des Moines Register reported. The cause of death was described as asphyxiation.

Diane Mott discovered her husband's body at about 4 p.m. Thursday, police said. She told the newspaper he had been in great pain because of diabetes.

The book was written by Derek Humphry, who became an advocate of assisted suicide after his wife, suffering from terminal cancer, took her own life in 1975. Humphry is a founder of the Hemlock Society and a past president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.

"This book promises them relief. But in a way, it's giving people permission to kill themselves," said Dale Chell, a suicide prevention coordinator with the Iowa Department of Public Health. "The idea that someone is helping someone end their life seems to be against human nature. You should help someone end their agony, rather than end their life."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: atatt; euthanasia; moralabsolutes; prolife
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-90 next last
To: mamelukesabre

Not always true. In some policies there is essentially a waiting period before a suicide will be paid. I actually had a policy with this arrangement and I believe it was 5 years.


21 posted on 01/25/2009 10:42:48 AM PST by SlapHappyPappy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SlapHappyPappy; therut

That’s crazy. Suicides should NEVER get paid. Suicide is fraud. That’s like paying someone to steal your car so you can have the insurance money. Or stealing it yourself.


22 posted on 01/25/2009 10:49:24 AM PST by mamelukesabre (Give me Liberty or give me something to aim at)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: The World

NavVet said:

"His last words, “Yes Dear, I increased the life insurance as you requested, what’s that DVD you’re holding"


23 posted on 01/25/2009 10:51:03 AM PST by I see my hands (_8(|)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: mamelukesabre
Man uses 'Final Exit' as suicide guide

In a related story, "Woman uses 'What to Expect When You're Expecting' as a pregnancy guide."

24 posted on 01/25/2009 10:52:21 AM PST by dfwgator (1996 2006 2008 - Good Things Come in Threes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee
I never said it wasn't his right, I simply said it was wrong.

If it is our right, then it isn't up to you to say it is wrong.

25 posted on 01/25/2009 10:55:36 AM PST by ColdWater
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee
"This book promises them relief. But in a way, it's giving people permission to kill themselves," said Dale Chell, a suicide prevention coordinator with the Iowa Department of Public Health. "The idea that someone is helping someone end their life seems to be against human nature. You should help someone end their agony, rather than end their life."

There's no relief when you die and find yourself in hell. I'll bet at this point, he'd rather be here.

How unspeakably tragic that people are fed this lie that death is the end, there's nothing after, and that their troubles will be over if they simply kill themselves.

26 posted on 01/25/2009 10:57:33 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dbz77; HangnJudge; wagglebee
I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked,

The problem with this clause is that almost all drugs are lethal given sufficient doses.

So can water.

That's not what is meant and you know it.

27 posted on 01/25/2009 11:01:55 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ColdWater
If it is our right, then it isn't up to you to say it is wrong.

God gave us free will (rights), but still told us that sin was wrong.

28 posted on 01/25/2009 11:02:33 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: metmom
That's not what is meant and you know it.

Lethal drug, in it's intended use

There, expanded upon for the semantically inept

29 posted on 01/25/2009 11:06:00 AM PST by HangnJudge
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: ColdWater; wagglebee

Just because something is legal, doesn’t make it right.

Murder is morally wrong whether the state allows it or not and whether the individual chooses it or not.


30 posted on 01/25/2009 11:07:57 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: HangnJudge

Problem is, that will be lost on pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia trolls.


31 posted on 01/25/2009 11:09:20 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee; ColdWater
Got a moment?


When I was about 16, I was hunting for grouse & pheasants one day.

As I approached a small stream, looking for an easy crossing, I spotted a raccoon which seemed to be stuck in a fork of a branch about three feet underwater.

I grabbed a long stick that was laying nearby and pushed the raccoon free. Then with a hooked piece of the branch I drug him on shore.

He was a gnarly old coon, and had lost many of his teeth, which I could plainly see as he was snarling at me.

I backed off from him, and he calmly walked back into the stream, lodging himself once again in that fork of the submerged branch.

As I watched, he drowned himself.


Even that raccoon knew that death was far better than the suffering he was going through.

32 posted on 01/25/2009 11:09:21 AM PST by G.Mason (If you surrender your right to own a gun, you surrender your right to your life)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: ColdWater
he had been in great pain because of diabetes.

Sorry for the loss of your father and his deep suffering. There are some twisted people here on FR that believe "great pain" for others, not themselves or their loved ones, is spiritual. They dismiss the pain and demand that the victim just get closer to God. "Great pain" according to their false theology is ennobling. They seem to be missing the empathy gene.

I pray that when my end time comes, those twisted souls are nowhere near me or my family.

33 posted on 01/25/2009 11:10:20 AM PST by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Drango; ColdWater; HangnJudge; metmom; floriduh voter; BykrBayb; Lesforlife
There are some twisted people here on FR that believe "great pain" for others, not themselves or their loved ones, is spiritual.

Actually, there are some on FR who prefer DEATH to palliative care.

34 posted on 01/25/2009 11:12:25 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: NavVet
His last words, “Yes Dear, I increased the life insurance as you requested, what’s that DVD you’re holding.”

You must watch the Oxygen Network(television for women...who want to know how to off their husbands and get away with it)

35 posted on 01/25/2009 11:16:57 AM PST by RckyRaCoCo (Liberal media gloating makes me feel like reloading)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Drango
There are some twisted people here on FR that believe "great pain" for others, not themselves or their loved ones, is spiritual. They dismiss the pain and demand that the victim just get closer to God. "Great pain" according to their false theology is ennobling. They seem to be missing the empathy gene.

Sources? Links?

36 posted on 01/25/2009 11:17:22 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee
"Suicide IS NOT the solution to ANYTHING."

Have you never heard the words to the M*A*S*H theme song?

37 posted on 01/25/2009 11:27:42 AM PST by VRWCtaz (Things change. Change you hope for changes too. Spare change?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: The Great RJ
When I was growing up, one of my best friends was a girl whose father committed a botched suicide by shooting himself in the head when she was a toddler. She and her Mom used to visit him in a local nursing home every Sun. after church. Nearly every week, we would talk on the phone after she returned home. She would vent about her pain at seeing him in his condition and how it tore her apart to go there even though she had no other memory of him. She was 26 yrs. old when he finally passed away from a medical complication, and she was scarred for life.

I'm sure he never considered the pain he would cause his loved ones beyond the initial shock of his death, and I always wondered if he was ever aware of the tragedy he had caused.

38 posted on 01/25/2009 11:27:46 AM PST by penowa
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ColdWater; wagglebee
If it is our right, then it isn't up to you to say it is wrong.

The legality of an action does not make it moral. Abortion is legal, it is not morally right. Slavery is practiced and accepted in Africa and the Middle East. It is still morally reprehensible.

39 posted on 01/25/2009 11:36:06 AM PST by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: wagglebee; ColdWater
"Are you saying that palliative medicine could not relieve the pain? If that is the case they were doing it wrong"

"I never said it wasn't his right, I simply said it was wrong"

It's incredibly angering to hear ignorance and sanctimony speak about someone else's pain.

I'm not saying it isn't your right, I'm simply saying it's evil.


40 posted on 01/25/2009 11:36:59 AM PST by I see my hands (_8(|)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-90 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson