[Right_to_die] Judith Coats -- vital 'backroom fighter' for our movement dies

[World right-to-die news list (nonprofit)]

OBITUARY

The American right to die movement lost one of its most significant 
workers when Mrs Judith Coats died on 3 September after 30 years of 
activism.  She was 70.

Judy had watched me debating on the Phil Donahue television show in l980
at a time when she was fighting Hodgkins Disease, stage 3B, considered 
terminal.  She joined the Hemlock Society almost immediately, but still 
took huge treatments for her disease -- and lived.

Judy was born in Milwaukie in l939 and attended Spencerian Business 
College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, receiving a
one-year degree in 1958.  She married Francis Coats in l964 and they had 
two children.

Throughout married life, family mattered most, although Judy found time 
to write newspaper
articles and produce newsletters.  She was a commuunity activist par 
excellance, always involved in local political and educational issues 
and campaigns. In
later years the right-to-die efforts became the strong second role.

Judy was convener of the first meeting of Hemlock of Michigan on 31 
March l990 when it was formed as a chapter of the Hemlock Society USA. 
She had arranged that Dr. Jack Kevorkian be the first speaker.
He changed his mind about speaking when he asked Hemlock members if he 
could help his first case, Janet Adkins, using his suicide machine, to 
die in one of their homes.

All declined, fearing repercussions, and wondering why Kevorkian did not 
use his own home.  When Kevorkian asked Judy for the use of her home, 
and she also refused, he canceled his Hemlock speaking engagement. 
Eventually Janet Adkins was helped by Kevorkian to die in the back of 
his old VW van at a campsite on 4 June l990.

In 2002 the Michigan Hemlock chapter wound up, and Judy transferred her 
loyalty and work to the new Final Exit Network. She was a director, then 
treasurer and finally newsletter editor. She could rarely attend 
meetings because the treatments for the Hodgins Disease had left her 
spine weakened and painful.

Yet Judy beavered away from home, using telephone, internet, conference 
telephone calls and the newsletter to play a vital part in the Network.
"Judy's contribution to the Board was the voice of reason, as well as 
commitment," said Rosalie Guttman, a Network colleague.

In February this year, Detroit Metro police knocked on her door and 
demanded all the financial records of the Final Exit Network. She was 
able to refuse because they had recently been transferred to a newly 
elected treasurer. Judy declined to answer any of their questions and 
she heard nothing more.  (This inquiry was part of the simultaneous 
nationwide sweep by Georgia Bureau of Investigation, local police units 
and FBI of all officials of the Network. Four Network volunteers were 
charged with assisting a suicide in Georgia and expect to come to trial 
next year.)

Her last newsletter, No. 15, Spring 2009, was her finest. The mixture of 
hard news and compassionate story-telling  received much praise  and 
brought many contributions to the Network's funds.

Judy suffered a severe stroke on 19 August and died in hospital on 3 
September.

On Saturday, Sept 26 there will be a memorial gathering/service to honor 
Judy.  It will start at 11 am for friends and relatives to meet and 
chat, then a service starting at noon, followed by lunch. It will be at 
the Rivercrest Hall at the intersection of Avon and Livernois Roads in 
Rochester Hills, Michigan, two miles from her house.

		----Derek Humphry.             09.08.09

www.finalexitlibertyfund.org