Hemlock Society Heads For Denver Right-To-Die Group Is Moving Out Of Eugene

The Hemlock Society USA announced Tuesday it is moving its headquarters from Eugene, Ore., to Denver, citing the need for a central location to run its national right-to-die campaign.

The board of directors also favored Denver because Colorado has a number of active Hemlock Society chapters, said Wiley Morrison, a Kansas City lawyer recently elected president of the board.

“The board regrets leaving Eugene,” Morrison said. “This has been Hemlock’s home for the past seven years.”

The Hemlock Society was founded in 1980 in Los Angeles by British journalist Derek Humphry, who moved the group to Eugene in 1988 because he wanted a rural setting for its headquarters.

But Humphry, author of the best-selling “Final Exit,” a suicide guide for the terminally ill, left the organization in April 1992. He since has founded a separate group just outside Eugene, the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization, or ERGO!

Humphry criticized the Hemlock decision Tuesday, saying it will be costly.

“Leaving Eugene makes no sense,” he said. “Relocation to Denver will be expensive, time-wasting and extremely confusing to Hemlock members and the public.”

He said the society’s address and telephone number are printed in millions of books and reference materials. He also noted the entire staff is leaving the organization because most do not want to move from Eugene.

Lee LaTour, the society’s spokeswoman, confirmed that all staff members have chosen to remain in Eugene and look for jobs after the move is completed in January.

But LaTour said it is a good time to make the move because the society is about to begin a search for an executive director to replace John A. Pridonoff, an ordained Congregational Christian Church minister with a doctorate in psychology who resigned this year after three years with the group.

“Frankly, since Derek Humphry left the organization, this discussion about whether to stay has always been on the table,” she said.

LaTour said the move will not affect the society’s efforts to ensure that a physician-assisted suicide law narrowly passed by Oregon voters last November is put into effect.

“As a national organization, we’re involved in legislative and court action all across the country,” she said. “This won’t affect our efforts to help out any state.”

The Oregon law is the first of its kind in the world, but it was blocked by U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, who ruled it unconstitutional in August. Appeals are pending.