Final Exit Network

Final Exit Network, Inc. is a nonprofit organization founded in 2004 for the purpose of serving as a resource to individuals seeking information and emotional support in committing suicide as a means to end suffering from chronically painful—though not necessarily terminal—illness.

Final Exit Network’s founder and former president, Thomas Goodwin, testifying in a criminal trial against the organization in 2015, stated that "Exit Guides" instruct individuals in how to obtain equipment for committing suicide and show them how to use it, but do not physically assist in suicides—being careful to act within the law.

After unsuccessful efforts by the states of Arizona and Georgia to prosecute Final Exit Network, Inc. and/or its members in 2011 and 2012, the state of Minnesota succeeded in 2015 in obtaining the first felony conviction against the organization for assisting a suicide, that of Doreen Dunn.

Final Exit Network, Inc. is a national, nonprofit, 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt corporation and a member of the World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies.

On May 30, 2007, Doreen Dunn’s husband came home to find her dead on the couch. An autopsy concluded that Dunn died of coronary artery disease and noted that she had suffered from chronic pain, but did not list her death as a suicide.

In 2009, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation indicted four Final Exit Network members in connection with a sting operation. Years later, the Georgia authorities contacted Minnesota authorities to share evidence that Dunn had applied for Final Exit Network services.

Following the investigation, a 17-count indictment charged Lawrence Deems Egbert (then-Final Exit Network’s medical director), Roberta Massey (then a case coordinator), Thomas E. ("Ted") Goodwin (a former president of Final Exit Network), and Jerry Dincin (Goodwin's successor as president) with felony counts of assisting in a suicide, a felony, and interfering with a death scene, a "gross misdemeanor." It also charged the corporation Final Exit Network, Inc. The trial court dismissed charges against Ted Goodwin in 2013, at the start of the case; and charges against Jerry Dincin were dismissed when he died in 2013. On the eve of trial in 2015, the state filed a motion to sever Egbert's trial from that of Final Exit Network, Inc.; obtained a court order requiring him to testify at Final Exit Network's trial; and imposed immunity on him over his objection.

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