Russel Ogden—and the Farewell Foundation—prepare plans for Canada’s first facility to offer legal assisted suicide
Last November, sociology professor Russel Ogden offered to accompany a small group of Canadians to Switzerland’s Dignitas centre and to act as a witness to the assisted suicide of a severely ill family member. When he saw the effects of Canada’s criminal code on the family and their loved one, the social scientist became a legal activist. Russel Ogden and several associates formed an organization called the Farewell Foundation, which believes its members should have the right to receive assistance to end their lives, and that members should have the right to provide assistance.
The Farewell Foundation—which the province of British Columbia has refused to incorporate—proposes to establish a free-standing, rigorously supervised B.C. facility [opens to PDF] operating exactly like the Dignitas centre—where people who request assistance can come to commit legal, carefully scrutinized suicide.
We speak with Russel Ogden.
