Euthanasia advocate dies in Zurich
Ex-Hamilton Spectator editor publicly declared his wish to pass away ‘humanely’
Hamilton journalist Eric McGuinness, who publicly pleaded for his right to die with medical help, has died in Zurich.
The 69-year-old, who was battling cancer, said goodbye to friends last week, telling them he was going to Switzerland, where he could legally die on his own terms. At McGuinness’s request, friends are not disclosing details of his death. He feared that those close to him could come under scrutiny or judgment for their role in his death.
In an op-ed piece published in October, McGuinness, a longtime reporter and editor at the Hamilton Spectator, said the only thing on his bucket list was “to die as easily and humanely as a loved family pet.”
McGuinness reached out to a nonprofit association called Dignitas, which helps the ill and dying access a Swiss doctor who prescribes a lethal dosage of medication.
Friends say McGuinness had to provide notarized affidavits and medical reports in order to be granted membership into the organization. Once given what the group calls a “provisional green light,” he had four months to carry out his wishes.
He was feeling quite well at the time, said longtime close friend Barb Brown, who spoke to him the day before he left for Zurich accompanied by two loved ones. “If there had been death with dignity laws in Canada, he could have waited until the time was right,” said Brown.
Brown, a retired Spectator court reporter, says McGuinness’s death “reflected his life. He was extremely organized and thoughtful about how he lived his life. ”
He was told in June that a cancer he had fought off before with chemotherapy was returning in an aggressive way. McGuinness chose not to have further treatment.
He left a job as a copy editor at Postmedia and spent his final months with friends, hiking, attending art exhibits and seeing rock concerts at Supercrawl, something he hadn’t done much before because his true love was jazz.
John Burman, who worked as a reporter with McGuinness for about 30 years, said he “started to really live in the last six months . . . He found out to his surprise that an awful lot of people cared about him and that buoyed him.”