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Woman convinced parents to undergo assisted suicide together
After her parents both became seriously ill and her mother wanted to undergo assisted suicide, a Washington woman aided in her father's death as well.
Corinne Gregory Sharpe spoke to PEOPLE about her experience ensuring that her parents underwent assisted suicide together.
After her mother was diagnosed with aortic stenosis in her 90s, she lived for a few more years before her health began to decline. At that point, she said she wanted to die by assisted suicide.
Her father did not have a health condition outside of having previously had a stroke; however, he was nervous to live without his wife. Sharpe then helped him with a 'solution' — to kill himself alongside her mother.
Couple assisted suicide has become romanticized by the media.
Corinne Gregory Sharpe spoke with PEOPLE about her efforts to assist her father in undergoing assisted suicide alongside her mother. She said her family had always been close, so when her mother became ill, her father was nervous to live without her.
Sharpe's mother was first diagnosed with aortic stenosis in 2018 at the age of 92 and given less than two years to live if she did not undergo surgery.
"And even if she had the procedure, there was no guarantee that she was gonna live any longer,” Sharpe said. “So her attitude was sort of like, well, let's just kind of let things go as they go.”
But Sharpe's mother didn't die within those two years. In fact, it was three years later that her health began to decline, only after she fell and hit her head. Shortly after that, Sharpe's father appeared to suffer small strokes. “So now I have two parents in medical care,” Sharpe said.
Her parents were able to be at a rehabilitation facility together, but Sharpe said they were "losing the will to live," so she brought them back home. Doctors recommended hospice, but her mother decided she wanted to undergo assisted suicide, which left her father distraught. Sharpe came up with an "interesting" solution.
“I had a very interesting, serious heart-to-heart conversation with him one evening after my mom had gone to bed,” she continued. “And he was just panicked like, ‘What happens to me if she goes first?’ That's always been a concern of his. He couldn't see a scenario where he would want to continue if mom was gone.”
Study: Assisted suicide can be painful, prolonged and inhumane
As reported by PEOPLE:
Druse ultimately let his daughter know that although he recovered from the stroke, he wanted to choose MAID, if eligible, and end his life alongside Eva.
“He's always been afraid of dying. But I think he was more afraid of being left alone,” she explains. “He was like, ‘Well, if she's gonna go and I have the option to go at the same time, then I'm getting on that horse.’ So I was like, look, we'll figure something out.”
From that point, Corinne was constantly on the phone, speaking to hospice coordinators and doctors trying to get her dad qualified for hospice and MAID. She admits it was “surreal” to be essentially advocating for her own father’s death. By mid-June, Druse was successfully qualified based on his history of mini-strokes.
Corinne says it was “a race” to get her dad qualified, and the justification from doctors came down to the strong possibility of her father suffering a stroke that wouldn’t kill him, but would leave him incapacitated.
Sharpe spent what would be the last few weeks of her parents' lives hosting family dinners, making them their favorite meals, and sharing memories as a way to “repay my parents for everything they’d done for me.” It sounds nice, but there's no need for an adult child to wait until she knows her parents are dying to do such things for them.
When the drug powder arrived, Sharpe took a selfie with the delivery man and then stuck the drug on a shelf, where it feasibly could have been accessed by anyone. She then joked about choosing Friday the 13th to die, which is when her parents ultimately took the drugs — Friday, August 13, 2021.
“The counselors prepared the cocktail, we sat around and shared some private moments together. They got to sit in their own bed and hold hands with each other and talk before they were able to take the meds,” she said. “We put music on and they took the cocktail. Then we poured a glass of wine and we had a final toast. About 10 minutes after they drank it, they went to sleep.”
It has become increasingly common and romanticized for elderly couples to be euthanized together. This includes murder-suicides and those who opt to die together simply because they are elderly.
But the reality of assisted suicide is that it may not be as peaceful and romantic as many have been led to believe.
As Dr. Joel Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at the Emory School of Medicine and an expert on “physician participation in lethal injection,” previously explained, assisted suicide can be excruciating, even if it doesn't appear to be.
“[F]or both euthanasia and executions, paralytic drugs are used,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Spectator. “These drugs, given in high enough doses, mean that a patient cannot move a muscle, cannot express any outward or visible sign of pain. But that doesn’t mean that he or she is free from suffering.”
He added, “People who want to die deserve to know that they may end up drowning, not just falling asleep.”
Furthermore, a study in the medical journal Anaesthesia found that prolonged, painful deaths from assisted suicide and euthanasia were far from rare, with a considerable number of patients taking 30 hours to die, though some took seven days. Experiments with assisted suicide likewise have been painful, with one drug cocktail “burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain.” The same drugs labeled as too inhumane to be used for lethal injection are used in assisted suicide.
Suicide is not dignified, peaceful, or romantic. Efforts are made to prevent suicide unless the person in question is elderly, ill, or disabled. And then, it's made to appear noble and romantic to take your own life.
Editor's Note, 9/14/26: Corinne Sharpe contacted Live Action News by email, requesting certain changes and clarifications to this article, and asking that her remarks be included in this article. Sharpe told Live Action News by email:
"... to say my dad was not terminally ill is not entirely accurate. True he had not been admitted to hospice yet, but once we started the MAID conversation TWO doctors agreed it was reasonable to expect he would perish within 6 months or less. Also I didn’t have to CONVINCE anyone. He already wanted the option but wasn’t sure how to go about it. That’s where I helped. It is completely irresponsible that you have so misquoted and editorialized what really occurred and how in order to justify your position.
For your information, I am a stanch [sic] catholic who has a huge respect for the Right to Life movement. I’m sure you would not complain about the use of medical aid in birth, such as a C section or forceps as necessary to facilitate a birth that is happening.
Why is medical aid in dying any different.
I am requesting that you allow my points here to be published along side the article. You claim ‘couple assisted suicide’ is being romanticized. Well you have demonized the process of Death with Dignity."
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
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·Woman convinced parents to undergo assisted suicide together
After her parents both became seriously ill and her mother wanted to undergo assisted suicide, a Washington woman aided in her father's death as well.
Corinne Gregory Sharpe spoke to PEOPLE about her experience ensuring that her parents underwent assisted suicide together.
After her mother was diagnosed with aortic stenosis in her 90s, she lived for a few more years before her health began to decline. At that point, she said she wanted to die by assisted suicide.
Her father did not have a health condition outside of having previously had a stroke; however, he was nervous to live without his wife. Sharpe then helped him with a 'solution' — to kill himself alongside her mother.
Couple assisted suicide has become romanticized by the media.
Corinne Gregory Sharpe spoke with PEOPLE about her efforts to assist her father in undergoing assisted suicide alongside her mother. She said her family had always been close, so when her mother became ill, her father was nervous to live without her.
Sharpe's mother was first diagnosed with aortic stenosis in 2018 at the age of 92 and given less than two years to live if she did not undergo surgery.
"And even if she had the procedure, there was no guarantee that she was gonna live any longer,” Sharpe said. “So her attitude was sort of like, well, let's just kind of let things go as they go.”
But Sharpe's mother didn't die within those two years. In fact, it was three years later that her health began to decline, only after she fell and hit her head. Shortly after that, Sharpe's father appeared to suffer small strokes. “So now I have two parents in medical care,” Sharpe said.
Her parents were able to be at a rehabilitation facility together, but Sharpe said they were "losing the will to live," so she brought them back home. Doctors recommended hospice, but her mother decided she wanted to undergo assisted suicide, which left her father distraught. Sharpe came up with an "interesting" solution.
“I had a very interesting, serious heart-to-heart conversation with him one evening after my mom had gone to bed,” she continued. “And he was just panicked like, ‘What happens to me if she goes first?’ That's always been a concern of his. He couldn't see a scenario where he would want to continue if mom was gone.”
Study: Assisted suicide can be painful, prolonged and inhumane
As reported by PEOPLE:
Druse ultimately let his daughter know that although he recovered from the stroke, he wanted to choose MAID, if eligible, and end his life alongside Eva.
“He's always been afraid of dying. But I think he was more afraid of being left alone,” she explains. “He was like, ‘Well, if she's gonna go and I have the option to go at the same time, then I'm getting on that horse.’ So I was like, look, we'll figure something out.”
From that point, Corinne was constantly on the phone, speaking to hospice coordinators and doctors trying to get her dad qualified for hospice and MAID. She admits it was “surreal” to be essentially advocating for her own father’s death. By mid-June, Druse was successfully qualified based on his history of mini-strokes.
Corinne says it was “a race” to get her dad qualified, and the justification from doctors came down to the strong possibility of her father suffering a stroke that wouldn’t kill him, but would leave him incapacitated.
Sharpe spent what would be the last few weeks of her parents' lives hosting family dinners, making them their favorite meals, and sharing memories as a way to “repay my parents for everything they’d done for me.” It sounds nice, but there's no need for an adult child to wait until she knows her parents are dying to do such things for them.
When the drug powder arrived, Sharpe took a selfie with the delivery man and then stuck the drug on a shelf, where it feasibly could have been accessed by anyone. She then joked about choosing Friday the 13th to die, which is when her parents ultimately took the drugs — Friday, August 13, 2021.
“The counselors prepared the cocktail, we sat around and shared some private moments together. They got to sit in their own bed and hold hands with each other and talk before they were able to take the meds,” she said. “We put music on and they took the cocktail. Then we poured a glass of wine and we had a final toast. About 10 minutes after they drank it, they went to sleep.”
It has become increasingly common and romanticized for elderly couples to be euthanized together. This includes murder-suicides and those who opt to die together simply because they are elderly.
But the reality of assisted suicide is that it may not be as peaceful and romantic as many have been led to believe.
As Dr. Joel Zivot, an associate professor of anesthesiology and surgery at the Emory School of Medicine and an expert on “physician participation in lethal injection,” previously explained, assisted suicide can be excruciating, even if it doesn't appear to be.
“[F]or both euthanasia and executions, paralytic drugs are used,” he wrote in an op-ed for the Spectator. “These drugs, given in high enough doses, mean that a patient cannot move a muscle, cannot express any outward or visible sign of pain. But that doesn’t mean that he or she is free from suffering.”
He added, “People who want to die deserve to know that they may end up drowning, not just falling asleep.”
Furthermore, a study in the medical journal Anaesthesia found that prolonged, painful deaths from assisted suicide and euthanasia were far from rare, with a considerable number of patients taking 30 hours to die, though some took seven days. Experiments with assisted suicide likewise have been painful, with one drug cocktail “burning patients’ mouths and throats, causing some to scream in pain.” The same drugs labeled as too inhumane to be used for lethal injection are used in assisted suicide.
Suicide is not dignified, peaceful, or romantic. Efforts are made to prevent suicide unless the person in question is elderly, ill, or disabled. And then, it's made to appear noble and romantic to take your own life.
Editor's Note, 9/14/26: Corinne Sharpe contacted Live Action News by email, requesting certain changes and clarifications to this article, and asking that her remarks be included in this article. Sharpe told Live Action News by email:
"... to say my dad was not terminally ill is not entirely accurate. True he had not been admitted to hospice yet, but once we started the MAID conversation TWO doctors agreed it was reasonable to expect he would perish within 6 months or less. Also I didn’t have to CONVINCE anyone. He already wanted the option but wasn’t sure how to go about it. That’s where I helped. It is completely irresponsible that you have so misquoted and editorialized what really occurred and how in order to justify your position.
For your information, I am a stanch [sic] catholic who has a huge respect for the Right to Life movement. I’m sure you would not complain about the use of medical aid in birth, such as a C section or forceps as necessary to facilitate a birth that is happening.
Why is medical aid in dying any different.
I am requesting that you allow my points here to be published along side the article. You claim ‘couple assisted suicide’ is being romanticized. Well you have demonized the process of Death with Dignity."
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Melissa Manion
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·Issues
Nancy Flanders
·Politics
Cassy Cooke
·Issues
Cassy Cooke
·Analysis
Cassy Cooke
·International
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·Analysis
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·