More Final Exit Network Busts--This Time,
for Manslaughter
Final Exit Network was strongly suspected of assisting the suicide of
Jana Van Voorhis, a severely mentally ill woman in Phoenix. The MSM
ignored the story, but it was pushed strongly by New Times, an
alternative newspaper. Now, its journalism seems to have helped lead to
indictments. From the story:
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced a few minutes ago that
investigators from his office have busted four people on murder
[actually, manslaughter and conspiracy to commit manslaughter] charges
in the 2005 "assisted suicide" death of a seriously mentally ill
Phoenix woman...
The four defendants -- who include retired Scottsdale resident Frank
Langsner, a retired college professor -- have been charged with
conspiracy to commit murder. Langsner and Wye Hale-Rowe, another
so-called "exit guide" from the Final Exit Network (a national assisted
suicide outfit based in Georgia), also are facing manslaughter charges.
Phoenix police records (and reporting by New Times) showed Langsner and
Hale-Rowe, both in their 80s, were present when 58-year-old Jana Van
Voorhis...killed herself by inhaling helium through a hose, with an
oxygen-eliminating hood snugly over her head. Langsner and Hale-Rowe (a
retired family therapist and great-grandmother from Aurora, Colorado)
then staged the scene at Van Voorhis' Phoenix condo to make it look as
if the woman had just gone to sleep in her bed and died of unknown
causes.
As much as this law enforcement attention is to be applauded, Final
Exit Network isn't doing anything different than what Kevorkian did,
and indeed, is eerily similar to the approach to assisted suicide by
Dignitas in Switzerland (except FEN makes house calls) and what happens
under the Dutch euthanasia laws. In fact, as I have discussed, FEN's
death on demand views reflect the mainstream of the assisted suicide
movement--demonstrated by its former leader being elected vice
president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.
Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Source: Secondhand Smoke
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Date: May 15, 2009
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