Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying, often shortened to justFinal Exit, is a 1991 book written byDerek Humphry, aBritish-bornAmericanjournalist,author, andassisted suicide advocate who co-founded the (defunct)Hemlock Society in 1980 and co-founded theFinal Exit Network in 2004. The book was published in 1991 by the Hemlock Society US in hardback. The following year, its 2nd edition was published by Dell in trade paperback. An updated edition was published in 2010.[1]
The book, often described as a "suicide manual", describes the means that theterminally ill may use to end their lives. The book outlines relevantlaws, techniques, andliving wills.[2]Final Exit was perceived as controversial,[3] and it drove debate regarding theright to die. Another concern was that people who werementally ill could use information in the book to end their lives.[4][5] Despite the controversy,Final Exit reached #1 onThe New York Times Best Seller list in August 1991.[6]
Final Exit Network claims that approximately 750,000 copies have been sold in the United States and Canada and approximately 500,000 elsewhere. The book is banned inFrance.[7]Final Exit is Derek Humphry's third book on the subject of self-euthanasia; it was preceded byJean's Way (1978) andThe Right to Die: Understanding Euthanasia (1986).
In 1991,Final Exit spent 18 weeks onThe New York Times non-fictionBest Seller list, it reached #1 in August and was selected byUSA Today in 2007 as one of the 25 most influential books of the quarter century.[8]
It has been translated into 12 languages.[9] The originalEnglish language version is in its third edition.
In 2000, Derek Humphry recorded aVHS video version of the information in the book;[10] aDVD version[11] and aKindle version[12] were released in 2006 and 2011, respectively. A 4th edition,Final Exit 2020, was released as anebook.
It has been alleged that members of theHeaven's Gate cult used information from Humphry's book in order to commit mass suicide.[14] In response, Humphry said, "It's as bad as someone going into a gun shop and purchasing guns for self-defense or target practice and then using them for mass murder."[15]
In episode 6 of the first season ofThe Powers That Be (1992), Theodore Van Horne (David Hyde Pierce) reads the book in bed, ticking off the methods he's tried.
Bill Hicks incorporated the book into several of hisbootleg shows as a build-up to one of his controversial sketches on howeuthanasia can make movies more interesting and believable, quoting the phrase "Put 'em in the movies..."
In episode 10 of season one of the Showtime TV showHuff, Beth Huffstodt finds a copy of the book in her mother-in-law's closet and worries that her mother-in-law is planning to kill herself.[18]
In the novelAll My Puny Sorrows, suicidal Elfrieda orders a copy of the book and her husband and sister debate whether or not to dispose of it.
Humphry summarizes the world reaction toFinal Exit in his memoirGood Life, Good Death (Carrel Books, NY, 2017).
On episode 14 of the final season ofGolden Girls ("Old Boyfriends"), Blanche is reading the personals column of their local newspaper for Sophia. One of the ads makes a reference to theFinal Exit as one of the hobbies of an individual seeking a date partner.
The book is in the bathroom in the 2016 movieSister Cities, in which the mother, suffering from ALS, planned her own exit.
The book is referenced in the 2020 movieNomadland by a character who is dying from brain cancer and contemplating suicide. However, the character mistakenly claims that it was written byJack Kevorkian.
Humphry, Derek (2002).Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying, 3rd edition.ISBN0-385-33653-5. Delta Trade Paperback. Revised and updated.
Humphry, Derek (2002).Let Me Die Before I Wake & Supplement to Final Exit.ISBN978-1-4011-0286-9
Humphry, Derek (2008)Good Life, Good Death: Memoir of an investigative reporter and pro-choice advocate. Hardcopy and eBook.ISBN978-0-9768283-3-4
