Colorado part of probe into support group for suicides
By Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published February 27, 2009 at 12:05 a.m.
Colorado is part of a multi- state investigation of a Georgia-based suicide-support group that has members here.
The Final Exit Network's president, its medical director and two other members were charged Wednesday in the death of John Celmer, a 58- year-old Georgia man who suffered for years from cancer of the throat and mouth. The suspects, who were charged in Georgia and Maryland, could get up to five years in prison.
The arrests came after an eight-month Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe. It included a Wednesday sting operation at a Georgia home where a undercover agent posed as member of the suicide network to obtain assistance with his feigned suicide plan, the agency said in a statement.
Aurora police spokesman Detective Bob Friel said it had a detective interview a resident at the request of Georgia authorities. He said he couldn't provide details on who was interviewed and when, because it is GBI's investigation.
Meanwhile, Phoenix authorities are investigating a former Aurora woman who allegedly was one of two "exit guides" in the controversial 2007 suicide of Jana Van Voorhis, a woman who was mentally ill - but not terminally ill - who suffocated herself at her Phoenix home.
Initial reports that a Colorado property was searched were inaccurate.
The group's members bristle at the term assisted suicide, calling their mission "self-deliverance." Members say they don't play an active role in a person's death, but rather support and guide those who decide to end their lives on their own.
Authorities say new members pay a $50 fee and are vetted through an application process on the network Web site - finalexitnetwork.org.
Those seeking to end their lives are assigned a guide who instructs them to purchase two new helium tanks and a hood. Authorities say it's consistent with the way Celmer died - suffocation due to inhalation.
"The investigation is phony. Everything we do it legal," said Faye Girsh, former head of the Hemlock Society, a Denver- based right-to-die group that changed its name in 2003.
Girsh has joined the Final Exit Network and serves as a senior adviser. Now living in San Diego, Girsh said she has been an exit guide in two suicides.
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