Derek Humphry's Headshot

Derek Humphry

Author, President of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies - Panelist Blurb

Derek Humphry (b. April 29, 1930, Bath, England) is a British-born American journalist, author and principal founder in 1980 of the Hemlock Society USA and past president of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, both of which support the notion of decriminalization of voluntary euthanasia. He is the author of Jean's Way and the bestseller Final Exit; he is also the president of the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization and advisor to the Final Exit Network. He lives in Junction City, Oregon.

Born to a British father and an Irish mother, he was raised in Somerset. His education was slender because of a broken home followed by World War II, when many English schools were in chaos, finally leaving at the age of 15, when he became a messenger boy for the Yorkshire Post. In a 30-year journalistic career Humphry worked and wrote for the Bristol Evening World, the Manchester Evening News, the Daily Mail, the Sunday Times and, lastly, the Los Angeles Times.

NOTE: Bio updated on June 14, 2011.