The Media Fondly Remembers Pro-Deather

Peter Goodwin was a mover and shaker behind the Oregon law legalizing assisted suicide. He decided to die practicing what he preached. Predictably, the media gave him a fawning farewell.

Peter Goodwin: The Dying Doctor’s Last Interview

Dr. Peter Goodwin, a family physician and right-to-die activist, took his own life on March 11, 2012, at age 83. He did it legally, with the blessing of his family and doctors, under the Oregon law allowing physician-assisted suicide — the first such law in the country — that Goodwin was instrumental in creating.

Dr. Goodwin granted TIME his last interview, four days before he died. (The full interview in the new issue of TIME is available to subscribers here.) He did not look like a dying man; he was chirpy and alert and still had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. However, as a result of his fatal disease — a Parkinsons-like condition called coritcobasal degeneration — he could not use his right hand or do much reliably with his left. Walking was difficult for him and stairs were particularly treacherous. He did not want to die, but death was coming anyway, and he did not want to wait. more