An assisted suicide group has been accused of helping people die all over the country and police are looking into whether it is connected to an elderly Middlebury woman’s death in November.
The tip came from police in Georgia. They said the woman's death could be tied to a right-to-die organization, the Final Exit Network, Middlebury police chief Richard Guisti said.
The information from Georgia led police to an Old Saybrook home. There, police took a computer that has been sent to a state crime lab for analysis, Guisti said.
It's a possible connection, Guisti said, but Middlebury police aren't certain yet and no charges have been filed here. Police said the investigation could take weeks or even months.
In February, agents from the Georgia Department of Investigation arrested two volunteers for Final Exit Network and charged them for their alleged roles in the assisted suicide of a 58-year-old man. Two people in Maryland were also charged.
“Final Exit Network works within the laws by providing counseling and training and support,” the group posted on its Web site. “The Exit Guide Program serves people who are suffering from an intolerable medical condition which has become more than they can bear.”
The way the Georgia man died was by helium inhalation, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
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“After paying $50 for membership in The Final Exit Network and going through an application process, the member is visited by an "Exit Guide" assigned to his case,” according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation news release. “During the visitations, the member is instructed to purchase two helium tanks of a specific size and brand and a specific type of hood known as an "exit bag." On the day of the event, the member is visited by the "Exit Guide" and a "Senior Exit Guide," who instructs the member through the process.”
“Final Exit Network does not ‘assist’ suicide in any way, nor do we encourage individuals to hasten their deaths,” Jerry Dincin, President of Final Exit Network, said.
Final Exit volunteers interview people seeking the group’s services, evaluate the person’s needs, provide information on all alternatives for care at the end of life, including all legal methods of self-deliverance that will produce a peaceful, quick, certain and painless death, according to the Web site.
