Assisted suicide advocate Frank Kavanaugh murders wife, Barbara Kavanaugh then self
A self-described death-with-dignity advocate was shot dead along with his ailing wife in an assisted living center in Florida. Police say Frank Kavanaugh shot and killed his wife Barbara before turning the gun on himself.
Kavanaugh, 81, served on the national advisory board for the Final Exit Network, an advocacy organization in the right-to-die debate, was discovered dead in the early morning hours Tuesday alongside his wife, Barbara, age 88.
Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Skip Conroy said the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide. The Kavanaughs were found at the Solaris HealthCare Charlotte Harbor center in Port Charlotte, Fla.
Frank Kavanaugh
Robert Rivas, general counsel for the Final Exit Network, called Frank Kavanaugh “one of the best, most beloved and dedicated” members of the group and wrote on Facebook that “the Sheriff’s Office labeled the deaths of Frank and his wife, Barbara, a ‘murder-suicide,’ but I would call it the tragic consequence of living in a country that prohibits people from exercising any type of informed choices in death.”
“It was a rational suicide,” Final Exit Network President Janis Landis told The Washington Post. “Both of them made this decision. It was not murder.”
“He had really disengaged from everything else,” Landis said. “He was at her side every day, all day. He hadn’t spent a night away from home since she got the diagnosis.”
Landis, the group’s president, said several members knew what the Kavanaughs had been going through but none knew how bad it had gotten.
“We’re not surprised that both of them felt strongly about their right to decide the timing and manner of their deaths when the quality of their lives became unacceptable,” she said.
According to Florida law, assisted suicide is manslaughter, a second-degree felony.
“We would like to express our sincere condolences to the family of the husband and wife involved in a tragic event that occurred at our facility last night,” F. Stan Weye, an administrator for Solaris Healthcare, told ABC affiliate WZVN in a statement.
[…] The Global Dispatch reports Frank Kavanaugh, 81, a board member of the pro-euthanasia group Final Exit Network, was discovered dead early last Tuesday morning near his dead wife, Barbara, 88. […]
[…] The Global Dispatch reports Frank Kavanaugh, 81, a board member of the pro-euthanasia group Final Exit Network, was discovered dead early last Tuesday morning near his dead wife, Barbara, 88. […]
I take exception to the polling on legalizing assisted suicide.
I have found (serving 60 fair booth days) that about half of the public thinks they are in favor of such a law, that is until they learn about the flaws in the laws that create new paths of elder abuse with immunity. Once they learn that a predatory heir may steer the signup process and then forcibly administer the lethal dose without oversight, they all said, “I am not for that!”.
Anyway all of these Oregon Model bills have the same flaws that work together to eviscerate flaunted safe guards.
For example how many times have you nodded your head when the proponents declared that the lethal dose must be self-administered?
Well, read the language of the law/bill and you will find that there is no means provided to insure that marketing point. For example “self-administrate” was mentioned 11 times in the 8 page Minnesota SF 1880 and yet there was no means provided to confirm that the lethal dose was forced on not, who would know if they struggled and not consented.
In fact what is provided is that there may be no investigations allowed after the death (page 6 of 8 Subd. 12. In addition allowing a stranger that claims to know how the person communicates may speak for them eviscerates all the intended safeguards, page 1 of 8 (e).
Along with allowing predatory heirs and staff to witness even as other family members are not required to be contact.
This is a very dangerous public policy that by their own records in OR and WA is establishing poisoning as the “medical standard of care” for people that have “feelings” of fear of the loss of autonomy.
We are all at risk of abuse by these poorly composed laws/bills.
Respectfully submitted,
Bradley Williams
President
MTaas dot org
I take exception to the polling on legalizing assisted suicide.
I have found (serving 60 fair booth days) that about half of the public thinks they are in favor of such a law, that is until they learn about the flaws in the laws that create new paths of elder abuse with immunity. Once they learn that a predatory heir may steer the signup process and then forcibly administer the lethal dose without oversight, they all said, “I am not for that!”.
Anyway all of these Oregon Model bills have the same flaws that work together to eviscerate flaunted safe guards.
For example how many times have you nodded your head when the proponents declared that the lethal dose must be self-administered?
Well, read the language of the law/bill and you will find that there is no means provided to insure that marketing point. For example “self-administrate” was mentioned 11 times in the 8 page Minnesota SF 1880 and yet there was no means provided to confirm that the lethal dose was forced on not, who would know if they struggled and not consented.
In fact what is provided is that there may be no investigations allowed after the death (page 6 of 8 Subd. 12. In addition allowing a stranger that claims to know how the person communicates may speak for them eviscerates all the intended safeguards, page 1 of 8 (e).
Along with allowing predatory heirs and staff to witness even as other family members are not required to be contact.
This is a very dangerous public policy that by their own records in OR and WA is establishing poisoning as the “medical standard of care” for people that have “feelings” of fear of the loss of autonomy.
We are all at risk of abuse by these poorly composed laws/bills.
Respectfully submitted,
Bradley Williams
President
MTaas dot org
406 31 037.