https://nypost.com/2022/06/25/club-owner-mike-fleischman-im-ending-my-life-by-suicide/
Studio 54 club owner Mark Fleischman: ‘I’m ending my life by suicide’
A king of 1980s nightlife, Mark Fleischman caroused with the likes of Ron Wood, Keith Richards, Rick James and John Belushi. He owned the last nightclub incarnation of Studio 54, and, by his own admission, enjoyed more than his fair share of illicit substances. Threesomes were commonplace, as was boozing and coking it up with Robin Williams, tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis and other members of his after-hours loving “Dawn Patrol.”
Come July 13, however, Fleischman will drop his final drug: a lethal dose of barbiturates. With the assistance of the Swiss non-profit group Dignitas, Fleischman, 82, will commit legal suicide.
“I can’t walk, my speech is f–ked up and I can’t do anything for myself,” Fleischman, who is confined to a wheelchair, told The Post. “My wife helps me get into bed and I can’t dress or put on my shoes. I am taking a gentle way out. It is the easiest way out for me.”
Fleischman, who now resides near the beach in Marina Del Ray, Calif., said neurologists have been unable to diagnose his malady that began in 2016 when suddenly his left leg began dragging.
“It is worse than not being able to walk. Mark doesn’t have balance. He drops things and does not know where his body is in space,” Mimi Fleischman, his wife of 27 years, told The Post. “Doctors originally thought he had a form of Parkinson’s. But it is not that. Nobody knows what he has.”
His commitment to assisted suicide, Fleischman said, is not rash and has been percolating for at least two years. “I came to the decision slowly,” he said. “Two years ago, I decided that it wasn’t worth living. I took a lot of Xanax and ended up in the hospital.”
ER doctors brought him back from the brink of death, but, soon after, “I read a book about ending life. I read in there that the easiest way is to suffocate. But I did not want the pain. I was going to buy a gun. But my wife interceded. We started looking into a place where it would be legal to find someone to do it with.”
Initially, Mimi tried talking him out of the decision, but has decided to respect his wishes. “It’s going to be horrible,” she said. “He is my partner and we are devoted to each other. So it is the end of a part of me as well. I have to honor what he wants. [But] he is not giving me a choice. He wants to end his life and this is a dignified way to do it.”
Assisted suicide is illegal in California, and you need to be a resident in any of the 10 states where it is legal. Instead, Mimi found Dignitas for Mark.
Dignitas launched in 1998 and is devoted to helping people commit suicide when their health is failing. In the case of Fleischman, members of the organization reviewed his medical records and had a series of conversations with him.
“They want to be certain that I am making the decision for myself,” he said. “After reading my material, they asked me some questions to make sure I was serious. I had to provide a notarized affidavit, stating that I want to die. I had to go to a psychiatrist and he confirmed that I am of sound mind. I provided all that and they said they want me over there.”
The organization will provide Fleischman with his life-ending medication and a place in which to consume it.
“Then,” he continued, “they take care of the body. They will cremate me and forward the ashes to Mimi in California. The whole thing costs around $15,000.”