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After the death of Jack , Lawrence Egbert is the new public face of American assisted suicide
Washington Post ^ | 1/19/12 | Manuel Roig-Franzia

Posted on 01/20/2012 3:58:48 PM PST by wagglebee

Egbert, a slightly built, genial and energetic retired anesthesiologist with a snowy goatee, turns to his computer, his back to me, content to answer an e-mail while I sort through the pile. Once I finish untangling, I hold in my hands a curious plastic sack, about 21 inches long and 18 inches wide. A bunched white elastic strip, reminiscent of a garter, circles the mouth at the open end. A thick plastic tube runs into the sack, stretching 37 inches before branching into a T-shape with 12-inch arms extending from each side of the joint.

Egbert calls it an “exit hood.” It’s a contraption that can end a life in minutes. The 84-year-old doctor, who formerly served as a campus Unitarian Universalist minister and has taught as an assistant visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University, offers to explain how it works. The tube connects to two helium tanks, he says. He lifts the hood over his head and lowers the open end, letting go as the garter clamps to his forehead. Then, he says, you release the valves on the tanks, streaming helium into the hood.

“You fill it up until it feels like a New York chef’s hat,” he says, stretching the hood to demonstrate.

Then, he says, you pull the hood down. And he does just that, easing it past his eyes, his nose, his chin, and cinching it even tighter at his neck with a sweatband. His face goes hazy behind the plastic, a blurry image of a man whose life and work are prone to distortions and intrigue. His breath fogs the plastic, but he holds the hood there for a moment, saying something that I can’t quite make out.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: assistedsuicide; euthanasia; moralabsolutes; prolife
In those final seconds before his patients lose consciousness and die, the words they utter sound like Donald Duck, he says, imitating the high-pitched, nasally squeak familiar to any child who has sucked a gulp from a helium balloon.

THIS is what passes as "dignity" for these murdering bastards.

1 posted on 01/20/2012 3:59:00 PM PST by wagglebee
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To: cgk; Coleus; cpforlife.org; narses; Salvation; 8mmMauser
Pro-Life Ping
2 posted on 01/20/2012 4:00:58 PM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee

If it’s assisted, it’s no suicide.


3 posted on 01/20/2012 4:02:14 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: BykrBayb; floriduh voter; Lesforlife; Sun; EternalVigilance
Ping
4 posted on 01/20/2012 4:02:14 PM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: 185JHP; 230FMJ; AKA Elena; APatientMan; Albion Wilde; Aleighanne; Alexander Rubin; ...
Moral Absolutes Ping!

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5 posted on 01/20/2012 4:04:07 PM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee

Figures he’s a Unitarian Universalist minister.

They claim to have no creed, but they’re bound to take the liberal, left, non-traditional, or unholy side of every question.


6 posted on 01/20/2012 4:18:26 PM PST by heartwood
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To: heartwood

Shouldn’t that guy be looking for an EXIT real soon?


7 posted on 01/20/2012 5:00:21 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

We have assisted suicide in WA state. The left is quite enthralled with it. The year after the left spent thousands of dollars to get the the Assisted Suicide law enacted, the city of Seattle spent thousands of dollars on a suicide fence on a bridge in Seattle to prevent unassisted suicide.

I just love the inconsistencies of the left.


8 posted on 01/20/2012 5:06:07 PM PST by Eva
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To: GeronL

Well said.


9 posted on 01/20/2012 6:40:18 PM PST by Huntress ("Politicians exploit economic illiteracy." --Walter Williams)
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To: muawiyah
Shouldn’t that guy be looking for an EXIT real soon?....

The 84-year-old doctor...

If anyone has outlived their usefulness as a human being it is he. At 84 many are already dead or at least not running around murdering other people. When he is gone hopefully another is not in the wings waiting to take his place.

10 posted on 01/20/2012 9:01:12 PM PST by Bellflower (The LORD is Holy, separated from all sin, perfect, righteous, high and lifted up.)
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To: wagglebee

It must be busy season for him as he has to redeem all of those gift cards peoples relatives gave them for Christmas.


11 posted on 01/20/2012 9:11:18 PM PST by Hillarys Gate Cult (This space for rant.)
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To: wagglebee

The 84-year-old “doctor” is a hypocrite. The “good doctor” would not be 84 years old if he followed his own advice.


12 posted on 01/21/2012 5:42:48 AM PST by BykrBayb (Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
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To: All
Pinged from Terri Dailies


13 posted on 01/22/2012 11:49:32 AM PST by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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