'The process is beautiful': Chilling boast of 'New Dr Death' after assisting almost 300 suicides

Retired anesthesiologist Lawrence Egbert, 83, has been dubbed 'The New Doctor Death' after being charged by two states for his work as medical director of the Final Exit Network. He said he became interested in the 'right-to-die' movement in the mid-1980s when a Unitarian pastor in Dallas convinced him to take part in the euthanasia of a parishioner suffering with cancer.

While the woman's daughter talked her out of it, Egbert was convinced that they would have done the right thing. He then joined the Hemlock Society, which helped pass the nation's first law allowing doctor-assisted suicide in Oregon, before forming the Final Exit Network.

As the group's medical advisor, he decides which prospective patients are ill enough to take on. 'For at least 95 percent, we say OK,' he said. In comments that will rile those who do not agree with assisted-suicide, Egbert, who has been personally present for nearly 100 deaths, argued that the process is 'beautiful'. Daily Mail