''Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying,'' often shortened to just ''Final Exit'', is a 1991 book written by

Derek Humphry Derek Humphry (born 29 April 1930) is a British-born American journalist and author notable as a proponent of legal assisted suicide and the right to die. In 1980, he co-founded the Hemlock Society and, in 2004, after that organization dissolv ...

, a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

, and

assisted suicide Assisted suicide is suicide undertaken with the aid of another person. The term usually refers to physician-assisted suicide (PAS), which is suicide that is assisted by a physician or other healthcare provider. Once it is determined that the p ...

advocate who co-founded the now-defunct

Hemlock Society The Hemlock Society (sometimes called Hemlock Society USA) was an American right-to-die and assisted suicide advocacy organization which existed from 1980 to 2003. It was co-founded in Santa Monica, California by British author and activist ...

in 1980 and co-founded the

Final Exit Network Final Exit Network, Inc. (FEN) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit right to die advocacy group incorporated under Florida law. It holds that mentally competent adults who suffer from terminal illnesses, intractable pain, or irreversible phys ...

in 2004. The book was first published in 1991 by the Hemlock Society US in hardback. The following year, its 2nd edition was published by Dell in trade paperback. The current updated edition was published in 2010. The book, often described as a "

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

manual", describes the means that the

terminally ill Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced he ...

may use to end their lives. The book further outlines relevant

laws Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...

, techniques, and

living wills An advance healthcare directive, also known as living will, personal directive, advance directive, medical directive or advance decision, is a legal document in which a person specifies what actions should be taken for their health if they are no ...

. ''Final Exit'' was perceived as controversial, and the book drove debate regarding the

right to die The right to die is a concept based on the opinion that human beings are entitled to end their life or undergo voluntary euthanasia. Possession of this right is often understood that a person with a terminal illness, incurable pain, or without t ...

. Another concern was that people who were

mentally ill A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

could use the information found in the book to end their lives. Despite the controversy, ''Final Exit'' reached #1 on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list in August 1991.

claims that approximately 750,000 copies have been sold in the United States and Canada and approximately 500,000 elsewhere. The book is banned in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. ''Final Exit'' is Derek Humphry's third book on the subject of self-euthanasia; it was preceded by ''

Jean's Way ''Jean's Way'' (originally subtitled ''A Love Story''), a book by Derek Humphry, is an account of Humphry's terminally ill wife's planned suicide from suffering. The book is his first on the issue of voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. Ov ...

'' (1978) and ''The Right to Die: Understanding Euthanasia'' (1986).

Success of the book

In 1991, ''Final Exit'' spent 18 weeks on ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' non-fiction Best Seller list, it reached #1 in August and was selected by ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' in 2007 as one of the 25 most influential books of the quarter century. It has been translated into 12 languages. The original

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

version is in its third edition. In 2000, Derek Humphry recorded a VHS video version of the information in the book; a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

version and a Kindle version were released in 2006 and 2011, respectively. A 4th edition, 'Final Exit 2020' has been released as an Ebook. The ethicist

Peter Singer Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher, currently the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He specialises in applied ethics and approaches ethical issues from a secular, ...

included it on a list of his top ten books in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''.

Reception

''Final Exit'' has been a frequent target of censors; the novel appears on the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999 at number 29.

References

* The archives of the Hemlock Society and Derek Humphry are at the Allen Library, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Bibliography

* Docker, Chris "Five Last Acts II and The Exit Path" * Humphry, Derek (1991). ''Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying''. . * Humphry, Derek (2000). ''Supplement to Final Exit''. * Humphry, Derek (2002). ''Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying'', 3rd edition. . Delta Trade Paperback. Revised and updated. * Humphry, Derek (2002). ''Let Me Die Before I Wake & Supplement to Final Exit''. * Humphry, Derek (2008) ''Good Life, Good Death: Memoir of an investigative reporter and pro-choice advocate''. Hardcopy and eBook. * * Sutherland, John (2008) ''Curiosities of Literature''

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.finalexit.org/ 1992 non-fiction books Books about suicide Euthanasia

Success of the book

Reception

See also

References

Bibliography

External links