Derek Humphry was born on April 29, 1930 in Bath, England. He began work as a journalist at a young age, and wrote for many different British newspapers, including the Bristol Evening World, Manchester Evening News, Daily Mail, and the London Sunday Times, where he specialized in writing about race relations, immigration, prison conditions, and more. He also authored many books during this time.
In 1978, Humphry moved to the United States and accepted the position of special feature writer for the Los Angeles Times. This same year, he published Jean’s Way, which told the story of the death of his first wife in 1975, when she took her own life after a long and painful battle with bone cancer. Jean’s Way attracted attention worldwide, and inspired Humphry to begin his efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide for the terminally and hopelessly ill.
Humphry founded the Hemlock Society in 1980 in order to campaign for a change in laws regarding assisted suicide, and also to provide information about methods and means for terminally-ill patients and their families. After authoring pamphlets and the book Let Me Die Before I Wake as part of the Hemlock Society, Humphy’s 1991 book Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide led to intense controversy and attention worldwide.
After serving as the executive director of the Hemlock Society, as well as its president from 1988 to 1990, Humphry founded ERGO (Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization) in 1993. ERGO is a small nonprofit group that serves as the base for Humphry’s work, including his continued writing, research, and lecturing.
Organized into 2 accessions:
Historical/biographical features, newsletters, fundraising material for ERGO, videocassettes, publications, publications of others, journals and clippings. Bulk of papers are publications and journals containing articles on the right-to-die movement.
Derek Humphry papers including articles, ephemera, newsletters, journals, magazine, publications by Humphry and others, press releases, reports, and videocassettesregarding Measures 16 & 51, assisted suicide lawas and Supreme Court Descisions. Papers from Final Exit. Materials regarding American for Death wit Dignity, Yes on 161, Dr. Kevorikian.
Materials for book "Final Exit" including planning notes, articles, correspondence, original manuscript, and first edition signed by author. Also includes oversized scrapbook with clippings, mainly from Oregon, and correspondence from 1997-2007 as well as original lithograph of Humphry by David Levine for "New York Review of Books" magazine.
Open to all users.
Creator's literary rights retained. Contact repository for details.
Published works by Derek Humphry including "Final Exit" paperback copy and unedited 1st draft (2008) of Humphry's memoir "Good Life, Good Death" have been added to the Pacific Northwest book collection in UW Special Collections.
The Derek Humphry website "Final Exit" has been regularly captured by
the Internet Archive Wayback Machine since 2014.
Materials for book "Final Exit" including planning notes, articles, correspondence, original manuscript, and first edition signed by author. Also includes oversized scrapbook with clippings, mainly from Oregon, and correspondence from 1997-2007 as well as original lithograph of Humphry by David Levine for "New York Review of Books" magazine.