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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS  —COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
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2012 In Final Exit Network, Inc., vs. State of Georgia (S11A1960), the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously strikes down the state’s assisted-suicide 
law, finding it violates the free speech clauses of the Georgia and U.S. Constitutions. The court’s ruling means that four members of the Final Exit 
Network do not have to stand trial on felony charges in Forsyth County. They were charged in connection with the 2008 suicide of 58-year-old John 
Celmer, who killed himself two years after he had been diagnosed with cancer.
2012 The world’s first mobile euthanasia unit begins to operate in the Netherlands. 
2012 In Search of Gentle Death: The Fight for Your Right to Die with Dignity by Richard N. Côté (with a foreword by Derek Humphry) is published by 
Corinthian Books, South Carolina.
2012 The Georgia Senate passes a bill making assisting in a suicide a crime. The Senate bill was a reaction to the Supreme Court of Georgia’s 
decision, on Feb. 6, declaring the existing law unconstitutional in violation of First Amendment free speech principles. The Georgia Supreme Court 
ruling terminated the prosecution of the “Georgia Four,” Final Exit Network volunteers who had been arrested and charged in February 2009 under 
the old law. The Georgia House passed a similar bill on March 7.
2012 The International Congress of World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies is hosted in Zürich, Switzerland.
2013 Vermont becomes the first legislature in the U.S. to pass a physician-assisted suicide law. (Oregon and Washington passed their laws via citizen 
initiative vote; Montana’s came about through a court case.)
2015 The Final Exit Network (FEN), Inc., is convicted in Minnesota on a charge of assisting in a suicide because FEN volunteers instructed a Minnesota 
resident on the process of “self-deliverance.” The Supreme Court of Minnesota redefined the word “assist” to prohibit speech that enables a suicide. 
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case. 
2015 Vermont’s legislature passes a bill removing “sunset” measures from the original Act 39, Patient Choice and Control at the End of Life Act.
2015 A death with dignity bill narrowly fails, by a single vote in the Senate, in Maine.
2015 The California legislature passes ABX-15, End of Life Option Act, a death with dignity law.
2016 The Washington D.C. Council passes the Death with Dignity Act.
2016 Colorado voters pass the End of Life Options Act on the November ballot.
2017 In February, the Washington D.C. Death with Dignity Act goes into effect; implementation begins in June.
2018 In April, Hawaii becomes the seventh U.S. jurisdiction to enact an assisted dying law similar to Oregon’s original law.
2018 In May, the California End of Life Option Act is suspended for three weeks following a district court ruling. On June 15, an appellate court rein-
states the law. 
2019 The Our Care, Our Choice Act in Hawaii takes effect on Jan. 1.
Since Humphry’s Chronology
2021 In April, New Mexico becomes the 10th jurisdiction to enact an assisted dying law. On April 9, New Mexico Governor Lujan Grisham signs AB47, 
the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Options Act, which goes into effect on June 18.
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