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A love story of dying and death which
brought about changes
A publisher in Finland - Oy Scanria Ab - recently purchased the translation rights of the book 'Jean's Way' by Derek Humphry.
This book, first published forty years ago in London, helped to launch the modern movement for assisted dying for the terminally ill by switching the discussion away from exclusively euthanasia to more acceptable, planned self-deliverance and physician-assisted suicide.
The manner in which Jean chose to bring to an end her terminal
illness (breast cancer) prefigured the type of death with dignity laws later passed in six American states. It also launched the Hemlock
Society USA in 1980 campaigning for the right to choose to die.
This memoir by Jean's husband, Derek, who helped her to die
peacefully, has never been out of print in English, and also been translated into Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish (Spain and Mexico), Hebrew (Israel), German and Turkish.
'Jean's Way' can also be read on KINDLE. As can 'Final Exit'
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While there may be some confusion caused by greedy relatives who seek some form of compensation for the death of their loved(?) one and concern about death being premature to benefit an insurance benefactor, etc., we should be able to choose when to end our own suffering. I understand that hospice does that with drugs. But drugs and other devices may keep us alive for very long time without functioning at all. Alzheimer's patients often spend long periods of time in nursing homes without functioning or even capable of assisted suicide until their inevitable death, wasting a lot of money for their care in the process.
Ron