Final Exit Network

Final Exit Network, Inc.

Predecessor	Hemlock Society
Formation	2004
Founder	Derek Humphry, Faye Girsh, Ted Goodwin, others
Tax ID no.	80-0119137
Legal status	Active
Headquarters	Tallahassee, Florida, US (mailing address)
President	Brian Ruder
Website	finalexitnetwork.org

Final Exit Network, Inc. (FEN) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit right to die advocacy group incorporated under Florida law.^[1] It holds that mentally competent adults who suffer from a terminal illness, intractable pain, or irreversible physical (though not necessarily terminal) conditions have a right to voluntarily end their lives.^[2] In cases deemed valid, Final Exit Network arranges what it refers to as "self deliverances".^[3] Typically, the network assigns two "exit guides" to a client and are present when they die, but the network states, and has proven in court, that it does not provide physical assistance in anyone's death;^[4] rather, their role is that of compassionate advisors and witnesses.

Final Exit Network was founded in 2004 by former members of the Hemlock Society, including that organization's co-founders, Derek Humphry and Dr. Faye Girsh.^[5] It was named after Humphry's 1991 book of the same name.^[6] It is a member of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies.^[7]

The organization has occasionally been the subject of controversy and criticism due to its methodology.^[8] It favors the inhalation of inert gasses such as helium or nitrogen^[1] in conjunction with an "exit hood".^[9]

Final Exit Network and individual members have been prosecuted in Arizona,^[10] Georgia,^[11] and Minnesota.^[12] The defenses have largely centered around what constitutes aiding or assisting in suicides. The defendants conceded that while volunteer exit guides give their clients information about how to ensure a swift, pain-free death, they do not physically take part in the suicides, and they maintain that prohibitions against informing clients how to take their lives violate the free speech clause of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights.^[13] The Minnesota case resulted in the first and only conviction of either Final Exit Network or any of its personnel. In the Minnesota trial, it was established that Final Exit Network personnel did not provide any physical assistance in the "suicide" of the "victim." The State openly acknowledged that the corporation (and only the corporation) was convicted solely for communicating "words" that "enabled" a suicide, not for any physical conduct. For its sentence, the corporation was ordered to pay $30,000 in fines and $2,975.63 in restitution.^[14] The Minnesota Court of Appeal affirmed the corporation's conviction in December 2016 (confirming there was no physical assistance but rejecting Final Exit Network's free speech argument); the Supreme Court of Minnesota declined to review the conviction in March 2017, and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari review in October 2017.^[15]