Hemlock Society

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The Hemlock Society (sometimes called Hemlock Society USA) was an American right-to-die and assisted suicide advocacy organization which existed from 1980 to 2003. It was co-founded in Santa Monica, California by British author and activist Derek Humphry, his wife Ann Wickett Humphry and Gerald A. Larue.^{[citation needed]} It relocated to Oregon in 1988 and, according to Humphry, had several homes over the course of its life.^{[2][unreliable source?]} The group took its name from Conium maculatum, a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family. The name was a direct reference to the method by which the Athenian philosopher Socrates took his life in 399 BC, as described in Plato's Phaedo.^{[2][unreliable source?]}

The Hemlock Society's primary mission included providing information to the dying and supporting legislation permitting physician-assisted suicide. Its motto was "Good Life, Good Death".^[3] In 2003, the national organization renamed itself End of Life Choices. In 2004, some former members of the Hemlock Society, notably Derek Humphry and Faye Girsh, founded the Final Exit Network.^{[4][self-published source]} It took its name from Humphry's 1991 book of the same name.^[5]

In 2003, the Hemlock Society changed its name to End-of-Life Choices. In 2004, End-of-Life Choices merged with Compassion in Dying, which is now known as Compassion & Choices.^{[6][unreliable source?]} Several local and state organizations, including the Hemlock Society of Florida^[7] and the Hemlock Society of San Diego,^[8] have retained the Hemlock Society name. Others, such as the Hemlock Society of Illinois (now Final Options Illinois^[9]), have changed their names.^{[better source needed]}