ERGO/Euthanasia Research & Guidance
Organization
24829 Norris Lane • Junction City,
OR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Ellen Barfield, (410) 243-5876
DEATH WITH DIGNITY ADVOCATE DR. LAWRENCE EGBERT
DIES
Lawrence D. Egbert, MD, MPH, the Baltimore
anesthesiologist whose leadership in the right-to-die movement cost him his
Maryland license to practice medicine, died of a heart attack June 9. He was
88.
Dr. Egbert, a retired professor of anesthesiology and
public health, championed the right of individuals to choose to die rather than
suffer intolerable circumstances or unremitting pain—and the right of
physicians, family and friends to be present with those making that choice. He
helped found and served as medical director of Final Exit Network, which
provides education and compassionate presence to those facing end-of-life
choices; he also acted as a FEN exit guide accompanying those who hastened their
own deaths. He willingly paid a high price for his activism; newspapers dubbed
him “the new Dr. Death,” the State of Maryland revoked his license to practice
medicine there in 2014, and at various times he was under indictment in three
states for supposedly assisting suicides (although he was never convicted of any
charges).
Dr. Egbert's activism also included the peace/anti-war
and anti-nuclear movements, opposition to the death penalty and racism, advocacy
for civil liberties, single-payer health care and simple living. He served on
the boards of Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Maryland Civil
Liberties Union, volunteered overseas with Doctors Without Borders, lived
without a cell phone, air-conditioning, or a car, and traveled by bicycle around
Baltimore until less than a year before his death. He was an active Unitarian
Universalist for much of his life but attended a Quaker Meeting his last few
years.
Dr Egbert's wife Ellen Barfield said, "Larry was
scheduled for an aortic heart valve procedure on June 21. I grieve the cruel
twist of fate that got our hopes up, but I am so proud of the many ways he stood
up for suffering and abused people and against war, racism, poverty, and
coercion."
Lawrence Deems Egbert Jr. was born in Champaign, IL, in
1927 and grew up in Washington, DC.
After serving in the U.S. Army in Japan after World War II, he finished a
bachelor's degree at Johns Hopkins University, earned a medical degree from the
University of Maryland, served in the Navy as a doctor, and returned to Hopkins
later to get a Masters in Public Health. He worked at Harvard University and
Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of
Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He also served for several years as
visiting faculty at Pahlavi University Medical School in Shiraz, Iran, and the
American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
He became a nationally recognized anesthhttp://www.psr.org/esiologist and
published significant articles about patient care and racism in various medical
journals. His (and two colleagues') 1963 article on the “Therapeutic Benefit of
the Anesthesiologist–Patient Relationship” in the Journal of the American
Medical Association is still cited today and is deemed a “classic” by the
American Society of Anesthesiologists.
He is survived by Ellen, his wife and activist partner of
more than 25 years, five children, nine grandchildren, and three
great-grandchildren. A Baltimore memorial service will be August 27. Donations
in his memory can be made to Physicians for Social Responsibility, Final Exit Network, or Veterans For Peace.