4 arrested in assisted suicide of Georgia man

ATLANTA (AP) — Joining the Final Exit Network costs $50, and the privileges of membership include this: When you’re ready to die, the organization will send two “exit guides” to show you how to suffocate yourself using helium tanks and a plastic hood.

The Georgia-based organization says it is providing an invaluable and humane service. Authorities call it a crime.

Four members of the Final Exit Network, including its president and its medical director, were arrested Wednesday and charged with assisted suicide in the death of 58-year-old John Celmer last June at his home near Atlanta. Investigators said the organization may have been involved in as many as 200 other deaths around the country.

“The law is very clear, and they clearly violated it,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead.

The arrests came after an eight-month investigation in which an undercover agent posing as someone bent on suicide infiltrated the Final Exit Network, which bases its work on “The Final Exit,” a best-selling suicide manual by British author Derek Humphry.

Members of the Final Exit Network are instructed to buy two new helium tanks and a hood, known as an “exit bag,” according to the GBI. In court papers, investigators said the organization recommends helium because it is undetectable during an autopsy.

The network, which was founded in 2004 and claims 3,000 members, donors and volunteers nationwide, has long operated in the open. It has its own Web site, and its leaders have held news conferences and appeared at paid speaking engagements.

The group’s members bristle at the term assisted suicide, saying they don’t actively aid suicides but rather support and guide those who decide to end their lives.

“We’re just there to help,” said Jerry Dincin, the group’s vice president, who was not arrested. “People insist upon it. They want to do what they want to do. They’re suffering, and if they have intolerable pain, then they want to sometimes get out of that intolerable pain.”

Celmer did not appear to be seriously ill. Though his mother said he had suffered for years from throat and mouth cancer, court documents quoted his doctor as saying he had made a “remarkable recovery” and was cancer-free at the time of his suicide. Authorities said he may have been embarrassed about his appearance after jaw surgery.

Also, his doctor told investigators that Celmer was in pain because of arthritis, but that it could have been lessened if he had taken his medication properly and stopped drinking and smoking.

Georgia authorities arrested the group’s president, Thomas E. Goodwin, and member Claire Blehr. According to investigators, Goodwin and Blehr were with Celmer when he died, each holding a hand, and the two cleaned up the scene afterward by removing the hood and the helium tanks.

Maryland authorities arrested the organization’s medical director, Dr. Lawrence D. Egbert, 81, of Baltimore, and Nicholas Alec Sheridan, a regional coordinator. Investigators said Egbert and Sheridan evaluated Celmer before his death and gave the OK for his suicide.

Those arrested could get up to five years in prison on the assisted-suicide charges. They were also charged with evidence tampering and racketeering. Oregon and Washington are the only states to legalize assisted suicide.

Authorities in Arizona are also investigating whether the group helped in the 2007 death of a woman who suffered from depression but was not terminally ill. As part of the probe, investigators searched 14 sites in Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado and Montana.