I recently read the book Final Exit, by Derek Humphrey, and I was as impressed as anybody who has read it. Unless you read it, you can’t know the real meaning of what I’m saying. In my view, the author is a remarkable person in several ways and a hero (using American culture labeling).
However, for some unknown reason (to me, at least), there are no deep or even decent justifications about why the book should be used as a guide for self-deliverance methods only for terminally ill people or those experiencing unbearable suffering.
Of course, the author repeats ad nauseam that those people are the target public for the book, but he rarely explains why he advocates for that. Yet there are only a couple of lines where he talks about current knowledge about human mind, and a number of moments where he cites the laws to justify the restrictions. None of them touches the core questions raised about possible reasons for why only the terminally ill or those under extreme suffering have the right to be assisted in their voluntary end of life process.
That makes us wonder “why”? I did some research about that only to the extent enough to challenge our core point in this website: any competent adult has the right to be assisted in their end-of-life process, regardless of their health condition (see our statement on the “Your Story, Your Terms” page for details).
So far, I haven’t found any real or robust challenge to our core principle. Or, at least, none that can’t be argued against. I won’t bother you with details, but I assure you it’s not very hard to find both sides of the argument, if you want to go a little deeper in that discussion.
In short, our core principle is still solid.