The Hemlock Society USA was a national right-to-die organization founded in Santa Monica, CA by Derek Humphry in 1980. Its primary missions included providing information to dying persons and supporting legislation permitting physician-assisted suicide. In 1992, following the publication of Derek Humphry's book 'Final Exit', he left the leadership of Hemlock Society USA. In 2003 the national organization renamed itself, and a year later merged itself out of existence, and into a newly formed national organization. Compassion & Choices is a contemporary successor to the Hemlock Society. A number of unaffiliated local organizations continue to operate under a variant of the 'Hemlock Society' name.
