Health
Derek Humphry, Pivotal Figure in Right-to-Die Movement, Dies at 94
Derek Humphry, a British-born journalist whose experience helping his terminally-ill wife end her life led him to become a crusading pioneer in the right-to-die movement and publish “Final Exit,” a best-selling guide to suicide, died on Jan. 2 in Eugene, Ore. He was 94.
His death, at a hospice facility, was announced by his family.
With a populist flair and a knack for speaking matter-of-factly about death, Mr. Humphry almost single-handedly galvanized a national conversation about physician-assisted suicide in the early 1980s, a period when the idea had been little more than an esoteric theory batted around by medical ethicists.
“He was the one who really put this cause on the map in America,” said Ian Dowbiggin, a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island and the author of “A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God, and Medicine” (2005). “The people who support the notion of physician assisted suicide absolutely owe him a big thanks.”
In 1975, Mr. Humphry was working as a reporter for The Sunday Times of London when Jean Humphry, his wife of 22 years, was in the final stages of terminal bone cancer. Hoping to avoid prolonged suffering, she asked him to help her die.
Mr. Humphry procured a lethal dose of painkillers from a sympathetic doctor and mixed them with coffee in her favorite mug.
“I took her the mug and told her if she drank it she’d die immediately,” Mr. Humphry told The Daily Record in Scotland. “Then I gave her a hug, kissed her and we said our goodbyes.”
Mr. Humphry chronicled the emotional, taboo and legally-fraught pursuit of his wife’s hastened death in “Jean’s Way” (1979). The book, excerpted in newspapers around the world, was a sensation. Readers sent letters to the editor discussing the suffering of their loved ones. Many wrote directly to Mr. Humphry.
“I wish we had a solution like yours,” a woman wrote, describing her husband’s last eight weeks of life as “a horror.” “How much more beautiful, how much more ‘love.’ We did what others forced us to do and experienced that dreadful ‘death’ the medical world gives by prolonging life in every possible way.”
In their letters, some readers pleaded for instructions to help their loved ones die. That prompted Mr. Humphry, by then remarried and working in California for The Los Angeles Times, to think about creating an organization to advocate for assisted suicide and end-of-life rights for the terminally ill.
Ann Wickett Humphry, his second wife, suggested using Hemlock as a title, “arguing that most Americans associate the word with the death of Socrates, a man who discussed and planned his death,” Mr. Humphry later wrote in an updated edition of “Jean’s Way.”
In August 1980, they rented the Los Angeles Press Club to announce the establishment of the Hemlock Society, which they ran out of the garage of their Santa Monica home.
The organization grew quickly. In 1981, it issued “Let Me Die Before I Wake,” a guide to medicines and dosages for inducing “peaceful self-deliverance.” The group also lobbied state legislatures to enact laws making assisted suicide legal. In 1990, the Hemlock Society moved to Eugene. By then, it had more than 30,000 members, but the right-to-die conversation hadn’t yet reached most dinner tables in America.
That changed spectacularly in 1991, after Mr. Humphry published “Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying.” The book was a 192-page step-by-step guide that, in addition to explaining suicide methods, provided Miss Manners-like tips for exiting gracefully.
“If you are unfortunately obliged to end your life in a hospital or motel,” he wrote, “it is gracious to leave a note apologizing for the shock and inconvenience to the staff. I have also heard of an individual leaving a generous tip to a motel staff.”
The book shot quickly to No. 1 in the hardcover advice category of The New York Times Best Sellers list.
“That is an indication of how large the issue of euthanasia looms in our society now,” the bioethicist Dr. Arthur Caplan told The Times in 1991. “It is frightening and disturbing, and that kind of sales figure is a shot across the bow. It is the loudest statement of protest of how medicine is dealing with terminal illness and dying.”
Reactions to “Final Exit” were generally divided along ideological lines. Conservatives blasted it.
“What can one say about this new ‘book’? In one word: evil,” the University of Chicago bioethicist Leon R. Kass wrote in Commentary magazine, calling Mr. Humphry “the Lord High Executioner.” “I did not want to read it, I do not want you to read it. It should never have been written, and it does not deserve to be dignified with a review, let alone an article.”
But progressives embraced the book, even as public health experts expressed concern that the methods it laid out could be used by depressed people who weren’t terminally ill.
“I’ve read ‘Final Exit’ out of curiosity, but I’ll keep it for another reason — because I can imagine, having once nursed a cancer patient, the day when I might want to use it,” the New York Times columnist Anna Quindlen wrote, adding, “And if that day comes, whose business is it, really, but my own and that of those I love?”
Rather than worrying about the book’s contents, Ms. Quindlen said, “we should look for ways to insure that dignified death is available in places other than the chain bookstore at the mall.”
Derek John Humphry was born on April 29, 1930, in Bath, England. His father, Royston Martin Humphry, was a traveling salesman. His mother, Bettine (Duggan) Humphry, had been a fashion model before marrying.
After leaving school at age 15, Derek got a job as a newspaper messenger. The next year, The Bristol Evening World hired him as a reporter. He went on to report for The Manchester Evening News and The Daily Mail before moving to The Sunday Times of London and then The Los Angeles Times.
Before turning to books about death, Mr. Humphry wrote “Because They’re Black” (1971), an examination of racial discrimination written with Gus John, a Black social worker; and “Police Power and Black People” (1972), about racism and corruption in Scotland Yard.
Mr. Humphry was a polarizing figure even within the right-to-die movement.
In 1990, he and Ms. Wickett Humphry divorced and fought bitterly in the news media. She called him a “fraud,” accusing him of leaving her because she had been diagnosed with cancer. Mr. Humphry denied the allegation.
“This was a very shaky marriage,” he told The New York Times in 1990. “This is extremely painful, as bad as Jean’s death. I’ve lost my home; I’ve lived in a motel for three months.”
Ms. Wickett Humphry killed herself in October of 1991.
In a video recorded the day before, she expressed misgivings about the work they had done together, including helping her parents end their lives at home.
“I walked away from that house thinking we’re both murderers,” she said in the video, which was reviewed by The Times.
Mr. Humphry went into “damage control” mode, he told The Times. He placed a half-page advertisement in the paper explaining his side of the story.
“Sadly, for much of her life Ann was dogged by emotional problems,” the advertisement said, adding that “suicide for reasons of depression has never been part of the credo of the Hemlock.”
Ms. Wickett Humphry’s death and reservations about the right-to-die movement caused strain within the Hemlock Society. Mr. Humphry resigned as executive director in 1992 and started the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization.
The Hemlock Society eventually splintered into several new groups, including The Final Exit Network, which Mr. Humphry helped start.
He married Gretchen Crocker in 1991. She survives him, along with three sons from his first marriage; three grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Lowrey Brown, a Final Exit Network “exit guide” who helps terminally-ill patients plan their deaths, said in an interview that her clients sometimes credit Mr. Humphry and “Final Exit” for giving them the courage to end their lives.
“It was the Hemlock Society and the book ‘Final Exit’ that really crossed the threshold of getting this into ordinary Americans living rooms as a discussion topic,” Ms. Brown said. “You could talk about it at the Thanksgiving dinner table.”
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.
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Researchers found unusually high hantavirus levels in rodents in the Pacific Northwest, suggesting greater exposure risk in the surrounding agricultural communities.
The area with the biggest prevalence is the Palouse region, which includes parts of eastern Washington and north-central Idaho in the Pacific Northwest.
Researchers from Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine found unexpectedly high levels of Sin Nombre virus (SNV), which is the strain most strongly linked to hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) — among local rodent populations.
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In summer 2023, they collected samples from 189 deer mice, voles and chipmunks at eight farms and two forest sites.
Nearly 30% of sampled rodents showed evidence of prior exposure and about 10% had active infections, according to the study press release. The rodents that tested positive were from both agricultural environments (farms) and natural settings (wilderness).
Researchers found unusually high hantavirus levels in rodents in the Pacific Northwest, suggesting greater exposure risk in the surrounding agricultural communities. (iStock)
While deer mice are the primary carriers of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, the researchers found infections across multiple rodent species.
This suggests that Sin Nombre virus may be more widespread in the region than previously thought.
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The findings were published in 2026 in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a peer-reviewed journal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We were surprised both by how common the virus was locally and by how little data existed for the Northwest,” said Stephanie Seifert, the study’s corresponding author and principal investigator of the Molecular Ecology of Zoonotic and Animal Pathogens lab in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, in the press release.
“We’re really just beginning to understand how widespread and complex this virus is in rodent populations here.”
The hantavirus detected in this study is different from the Andes virus, the strain linked to the recent outbreak on board the MV Hondius cruise ship. (Getty Images)
The Sin Nombre virus, the most common hantavirus in the U.S., is typically spread to humans through inhalation of aerosolized rodent urine, droppings or saliva and is not known to spread person-to-person.
This is different from the Andes virus, the strain linked to the recent outbreak on board the MV Hondius cruise ship. Andes virus is the only hantavirus that is capable of spreading between people through close, prolonged contact.
“People may be exposed more often than we realize, but severe cases are more likely to be tested for hantavirus.”
Dr. Sonja Bartolome, an expert in pulmonary and critical care at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, pointed out that since national tracking began in 1993, the illness has remained rare, with 864 cases reported between 1993 and 2022.
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“Most cases have occurred in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, and 94% have been reported in states west of the Mississippi River,” Bartolome, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
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“It is important to conduct research that expands our understanding of how the virus spreads,” she went on. “Studies like this – which obtain and compare viral genetic sequences across regions and animals – help clarify how the virus moves geographically and between species.”
The researchers recommend efforts to prevent rodent exposure for living and farming in rural areas. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez, File)
Although similar findings have been reported in other regions, this is the first study to reveal the pattern in this part of the country, Bartolome noted.
“Because humans most commonly contract hantavirus through exposure to aerosolized rodent urine or droppings, precautions remain essential when cleaning areas with evidence of rodent activity,” she added.
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The study presented some limitations, primarily that it only measured the infection in rodents and did not evaluate human transmission risk.
Additionally, the samples were only taken in the Palouse region and may not be generalized to all the Pacific Northwest.
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The research was also conducted during a single season, which means the conclusions don’t reflect year-round data.
The study suggests the need for expanded hantavirus monitoring in the Pacific Northwest, especially in agricultural areas.
The study presented some limitations, primarily that it only measured the infection in rodents and did not evaluate human transmission risk. (iStock)
The researchers recommend efforts to prevent rodent exposure for living and farming in rural areas. Longer-term studies could help clarify how environmental conditions and seasonal changes affect prevalence of the virus, they added.
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“People may be exposed more often than we realize, but severe cases are more likely to be tested for hantavirus,” said Pilar Fernandez, a co-author on the study and a disease ecologist in the Allen School whose research focuses on the eco-epidemiology of zoonotic diseases, in the release.
“Understanding that gap — how exposure translates into disease — is the next big step.”
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How long you sleep could be linked to how long you’ll live.
A new study, published in the journal Nature, found that people who slept too little or too long showed signs of “older biology.”
Researchers from Columbia University in New York used global biobank data from about 500,000 people who disclosed self-reported sleep duration in a 24-hour period, including naps.
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Reported sleep times were compared with 23 biological aging clocks, estimating whether various parts of the body looked biologically older or younger than the individual’s actual age.
Short and long sleep were both linked with signals of a higher biological age. They were also associated with a higher risk of future diseases and all-cause mortality, the researchers found.
According to study results, short sleep and long sleep were both linked with signals of higher biological age. (iStock)
In nine of the aging clocks, the researchers found “statistically significant” links between sleep and aging, including in the brain, heart, immune system and skin.
Those with the “lowest biological age gap” were women who slept for 6.5 to 7.8 hours and men who slept for 6.4 to 7.7 hours, according to the study.
Longer sleep had a stronger link to psychiatric-related outcomes, while short sleep had more physical impacts on cardiovascular, metabolic, musculoskeletal, psychiatric, neurological, pulmonary and gastrointestinal conditions.
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The U-shaped results also showed that shorter sleep led to a 50% higher relative risk for all-cause mortality, while longer sleep had about a 40% higher risk.
The researchers noted that self-reported sleep poses a limitation to the study. As it was observational in design, it does not prove that sleeping exactly six to eight hours will slow aging.
Both women and men who slept roughly six to eight hours showed the lowest signals for biological aging. (iStock)
Saema Tahir, MD, a New York-based board-certified sleep medicine physician, reflected on these findings in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“Sleep is really when the body does its most critical repair work, including cellular restoration, immune regulation, hormonal balance, and even clearing out metabolic waste from the brain through what we call the glymphatic system,” said Tahir, who was not involved in the study.
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“When sleep is consistently too short or too long, those processes get disrupted. Over time, that disruption accumulates at the cellular level.”
This effect is proven in increased inflammatory markers and cellular changes, which are “hallmarks of accelerated aging,” Tahir noted.
“So, the relationship isn’t just correlational; there are real physiological mechanisms connecting poor sleep to the body aging faster than it should.”
“Sleep is really when the body does its most critical repair work,” the doctor noted. (iStock)
Tahir cautions her patients not to treat the six- to eight-hour recommendation as a “rigid prescription,” as sleep is individualized.
For example, a healthy 25-year-old and a 70-year-old with cardiovascular disease have “very different sleep architecture and needs,” according to the expert.
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“What I tell my patients is to use that range as a starting framework, but pay attention to how you feel,” she advised. “Are you waking up refreshed? Can you stay alert throughout the day without caffeine propping you up? Those functional cues matter just as much as the number on the clock.”
For certain people, like pregnant women, athletes and people recovering from illness, these sleep needs can shift “considerably.”
As sleep is individualized, a rigid six- to eight-hour framework may not work for everyone. (iStock)
“Sleep duration is important, but … getting adequate sleep and REM sleep that allows our bodies to heal, clear, process and repair is much more important,” Tahir said.
Regardless of sleep time, those who don’t achieve quality sleep often struggle, she shared.
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“I’ve seen patients who log seven hours but spend most of that time in light sleep, barely touching the deep slow-wave or REM stages that are most restorative,” Tahir said. “They age just as poorly, sometimes worse, than someone getting six hours of genuinely consolidated, high-quality sleep.”
Deep sleep is the phase when growth hormone is released and tissue repair peaks, and REM sleep is “critical” for cognitive health and emotional regulation, according to the expert.
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“So, chasing hours without addressing sleep fragmentation, sleep apnea or poor sleep architecture is missing the bigger picture,” she said.
The takeaway from this study, according to Tahir, is that sleep is not a “lifestyle luxury,” but a “biological necessity with measurable consequences for how we age and how healthy we are.”
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There’s still a cultural tendency to see sleep deprivation as a “badge of productivity,” which she pushes back against. “But I also want people to avoid the other extreme — health anxiety about their sleep can actually make sleep worse.”
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The sleep expert concluded that “consistent, good-quality sleep is one of the most accessible tools we have for healthy aging.”
“It doesn’t require a prescription or expensive intervention — it requires prioritization.”
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