Inspired by guidebooks for the discerning consumer, a right-to-die campaigner has compiled a “Good Euthanasia Guide,” listing organisations that help people end their lives and the relevant laws around the world.
Euthanasia has been a topic of hot debate in Britain after a handful of high-profile cases last year when ill Britons travelled abroad to be helped to commit suicide.
“I was in a pub and I was eating dinner and they had a bookshelf full of guides -- the ’Good Hotel Guide’, the ’Good Restaurant Guide’ and so on -- and I thought, that’s what we need,” Derek Humphry said in an interview.
“It’s a book of information for intelligent people who want to make an informed decision about their death,” said Humphry, a former Sunday Times journalist who founded a pressure group called the Hemlock Society in 1980.
Humphry has written several books on euthanasia, including his 1991 guide detailing how to end your own life called “Final Exit,” which has sold over a million copies and includes chapters on self-starvation and “Bizarre Ways to Die.”
Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium all have assisted dying or euthanasia laws. Assisted suicide has been allowed in the state of Oregon since 1998.