To Gently Leave This Life

Welcome to the 2018 Updates Edition for To Gently Leave This Life: The Right To Die. I began contemplating end-of-life issues after witnessing my mother’s slow and painful death from cancer. Five years ago, when I was researching and writing the first edition of this book, I anticipated many more states and countries to have enacted assisted dying legislation by now. Only six states and the District of Columbia have passed Death With Dignity laws. Only one more country, Canada, has legalized voluntary euthanasia. In 2014, the front-page story of Brittany Maynard – who was dying from brain cancer and forced to relocate to Oregon for a merciful death – seemed to reaffirm the public dialogue regarding an individual’s right to die. In 2015, I was stunned when my brother was diagnosed with esophageal cancer and I wrote about our torment in Traveling In and Out of Heaven. How can it be, in 2018, so many voices near and away, crying into the night in unbearable pain – pleading for a good death, a peaceful death, a compassionate death. When I wrote about Karen Quinlan, I could not have fathomed watching my own brother being attached to a respirator, as tears flowed down my cheeks, not knowing if I’d ever hear his voice again. All I could think of was Karen Quinlan trapped to that gurgling respirator in 1975. My tears were for her, as well. In 2014, I met Professor Sean Davison at a conference for the World Federation of Right-to-Die Societies in Chicago, and I was blown away by his beautiful and heartbreaking story, which I have included as a new chapter in this Updated Edition. The Last Waltz: Love, Death & Betrayal has all the elements of humanity: the good, the bad, and the ambivalent, who have chosen to walk through life with blinders since it’s easier than actually caring. Sean helped his mother to die because she begged him to – her agony had become excruciating. While her son crushed morphine tablets into a glass, she somehow managed to smile and whisper, “You are a wonderful son.” Sean was charged with her murder because he cared too much, because he loved her too much, because he could no longer bear to watch her suffer. To Gently Leave This Life is the perfect reference book for the grassroots activist, legislator, and for people who are dealing with their own or a loved one’s terminal illness. It is my aspiration that medical aid in dying will be approved throughout the U.S. and in countries across the globe. I invite you to read To Gently Leave This Life’s - 2018 Updates Edition to learn what you need to know about end-of-life decisions. Whenever possible, people deserve the right to choose a “gentle and happy” death.