One of two Baltimore men who are members of an alleged assisted suicide ring said his group doesn’t physically assist in suicides and only recommends less-painful ways to die.
Dr. Lawrence D. Egbert was released Saturday morning from Central Booking after posting bail on charges of assisted suicide and tampering with evidence.
Egbert, 81, was arrested at an office on East 25th Street in Baltimore Wednesday as agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation served a warrant at the office.
He invited an 11 News reporter into his home Saturday afternoon and said the Final Exit Network — of which he’s the medical director — has helped people across the country who have terminal illnesses end their lives.
Egbert said the group doesn’t assist in a suicide by touching equipment or the person involved. He said the group’s role is to talk to the person interested and make sure it’s really what he or she wants.
“Very commonly, people will say, ‘God expects me to suffer at the end of life,'” and I accept that and do that, and I really respect that completely,” Egbert told 11 News reporter Kim Dacey.
“But also there are people who say there isn’t any God and, ‘Why should I suffer unnecessarily with something that I know is hopeless?’ And I respect that, too.”
The political hack masquerading as attorney general for the state of Georgia knows damned well he doesn’t have a case – beyond what he might spin from local yokels.
Long term, the doc is perfectly correct on his First Amendment rights. Only, now, he gets to waste weeks and months dealing with Mr. Protect and Serve who’s probably getting ready for a run at governor.