Md. Man Makes No Apologies For Helping People Commit Suicide
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Some compare him to Jack Kevorkian, calling him the new Dr. Death.
Andrea Fujii spoke with a Baltimore man, who is giving no apologies for helping people commit suicide.
Dr. Laurence Egbert has watched and helped nearly 100 people commit suicide. He considers it an honor.
"All I'm saying is that I think people should have the right to control their lives," he said.
Egbert is speaking for the first time since he was found innocent in a trial that caught national attention.
An Arizona woman used his organization, The Final Exit Network, to commit suicide. The group promises a painless death for people with debilitating diseases.
Egbert admits to approving Jana Von Voorhis as a candidate for assisted suicide.
"She died in a very dignified way," he said.
He can't talk about a pending case in Georgia involving a cancer patient who used the Final Exit Network to end his suffering. The two cases have resurrected the debate on assisted suicide. It's illegal in all but three states.
Egbert speaks candidly about helping hundreds of patients commit suicide, including one woman who brought her own bag to use for the helium suffocation process.
"And she woke up. She had a hole in the bag. It was so embarrassing. So finally the best thing I could do for it was make a joke and say she'd screwed up twice herself trying to commit suicide and she hauled in the quote 'pros' and we screwed up," he said.
While he waits for the next trial, he is not assisting any suicides.
"My lawyer says don't be less nervous because what one state does, the other won't necessarily do. And he also has said several times that juries are unpredictable," he said.
The Final Exit Network is still operational, but Egbert is not participating until after the Georgia trial.
He was the only person who was named in both the Arizona and Georgia cases as the Final Exit Network's medical director.
