BALTIMORE (AP) Two members of an assisted suicide ring will travel to Georgia to face charges they helped a 58-year-old man kill himself, their attorney said Friday.

A Baltimore judge agreed to let Dr. Lawrence D. Egbert and Nicholas Alex Sheridan travel on their own after Georgia authorities agreed to the arrangement, attorney Michael Kaminkow said.

The pair must post $50,000 bonds and then surrender to authorities in Marietta, Ga., by 5 p.m. Monday, Kaminkow said, adding he expects they will surrender earlier so they can post additional bonds in Georgia and return home.

Wearing bright yellow jumpsuits, the two smiled and waved to about a dozen supporters in the courtroom before Kaminkow asked the judge to release them on bond so they could travel to Georgia themselves to face charges. District Judge Jeannie J. Hong initially refused and the pair waived their right to an extradition hearing, but Hong later allowed their release, Kaminkow said.

``These are not people who are running from justice, these are people who want justice,'' Kaminkow told the judge.

Egbert is the Final Exit Network's medical director and Sheridan is a regional coordinator. They and two other network members were arrested Wednesday and charged with assisted suicide in the death of John Celmer last June at his home near Atlanta.

Kaminkow told the judge he was he was concerned about Egbert's health and the treatment he would receive in jail, noting the 82-year-old doctor had high blood pressure and Georgia authorities would have had 10 days to extradite the men.

``I'm sure they could have weathered it, but our concern was for Dr. Egbert's health,'' Kaminkow said after the judge allowed them to travel on their own. ``They could have languished there in a detention center for up to 10 days.''

Kaminkow said he hoped the two would be released Friday and expected they would travel to Georgia on Saturday.

Investigators say the organization may have been involved in as many as 200 other deaths around the country, and say the group advocated a suicide technique using helium, which cannot be detected in an autopsy, and ``exit bags'' placed over the head.

Kaminkow told Hong that his clients were not in Georgia when Celmer killed himself.

Egbert's wife, Ellen Barfield, said outside the courtroom that the case is part of a nationwide crackdown on assisted suicide and is bringing needed attention to the issue. She says, however, that her husband is not guilty of any crime.

``They were helping desperate people,'' she said. ``But it's not assisted suicide, all they do is talk.''

Kaminkow said he does not know why the two were charged, saying the group has 3,000 members and many board members and Egbert ``in no way'' participated in any assisted suicide.

The case has revived a long-simmering debate about the right to die.

Voters in Oregon and Washington have legalized doctor-assisted suicide, and a district judge in Montana ruled in December that such suicides are legal there, though the state Supreme Court could overturn that decision. Most other states have stiff penalties for those found guilty of assisting suicide. People convicted of assisting in suicide in Georgia can be sentenced to up to five years in prison.

Georgia began investigating the Final Exit Network shortly after Celmer died of suffocation due to inhalation in June. Celmer's mother says he had suffered for years from cancer, but authorities say he had recovered and was embarrassed about his appearance following surgeries.

Group members say they don't actively aid suicides but rather support and guide those who decide to end their lives on their own, telling them how to suffocate themselves.

Thomas E. Goodwin, the group's president, and Claire Blehr were both arrested Wednesday in metro Atlanta. A court appearance set for Friday was delayed after they were released from jail overnight on $66,000 bond each, authorities said.

According to court documents in the case, Blehr detailed each step of the process to an undercover agent who infiltrated the group claiming to be interested in committing suicide.

Blehr told the agent that he would place the hood on top of his own head, like a shower cap, and then inflate it by turning on the helium tank. After a few breaths, she told him the ``lights would go out.''

The guides would then let the helium tanks run for 20 minutes after they last felt his pulse to make sure he was dead. They would also stand by his side to ensure he didn't pull the bag off his head, according to the documents.

Jerry Dincin, the Final Exit Network's vice president, disputed the claims made in court documents.

``That's nonsense,'' Dincin said Friday. ``We hold your hand because we feel a compassionate presence means you hold someone's hand. They need to be with someone in their last minutes. No one pulls off any hood. This method is so quick and so sure and so painless.''

Associated Press Writer Greg Bluestein in Kennesaw, Ga., contributed to this report.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)