Derek Humphry

As the legal controversy continues--this newly revised and updated third edition of the landmark bestseller contains new, critically important information for patients, loved ones, and medical personnel. The original publication of Final Exit stunned the nation by offering people with terminal illness a choice on how--and when--to end their suffering. It helped thousands by giving clear instructions to doctors, nurses, and families on how to handle a patient's request for euthanasia. In the wake of court cases and legislative mandates, this revised and updated third edition goes far beyond the original to provide new information about the legality of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and a thoughtful examination of the personal issues involved. It has become the essential source to help loved ones and supportive doctors remain within existing laws and keep a person's dying intimate, private, and dignified. With deep compassion and sensitivity, it spells out why a living will may not be sufficient to have a person's wishes carried out--and what document is a better alternative. It updates where to get proper drugs and exactly how to carry out the quickest, most peaceful way to make a final exit. Finally, it gently talks to a person considering self-deliverance about alternatives, planning, and the means to make every death a "good death" at our time of greatest need.

Kaksikymmentä vuotta kestäneen tiiviin ja onnellisen avioliiton ja perhe-elämän jälkeen Jean Humphry saa kuulla sairastavansa syöpää. Kun sairaus alkaa pikkuhiljaa levitä, Jean ja hänen miehensä Derek tekevät yhdessä päätöksen: Jeanin elämä ei tule päättymään fyysiseen ja henkiseen kärsimysnäytelmään, vaan hän järjestää viimeiset päivänsä mieleisikseen ja kertoo läheisilleen sen, mikä väistämättä on edessä. Jeanin valinta on ainutkertainen henkilökohtainen dokumentti. Se on suurenmoisen ja kestävän rakkauden ylistys, jossa lukijalle paljastuu, kuinka aviopari oppii elämään kaikkialle levittäytyvän kuoleman uhan varjossa. Samalla se on liikuttava vetoomus: yksilöllä tulisi halutessaan olla oikeus valita, milloin ja millä tavoin hän kuolee.

For nearly four decades, Derek Humphry has blazed a trail for the right to die movement. He founded the Hemlock Society, pioneered Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, and wrote the bestselling books Final Exit (more than one million copies sold, and a New York Times bestseller for eighteen weeks) and Jean’s Way (UK bestseller). But before his wife’s terminal illness ravaged his life, Humphry was a successful journalist. In Good Life, Good Death, readers will learn how the twists and turns of fate led him to his life’s purpose. In his poignant memoir, Derek tells of his broken family, his wartime experiences as a boy in England, and rising to the highest rungs of journalism on two continents. In 1975, he lived with crippling fear and sadness when his beloved wife, Jean, was diagnosed with cancer. As the disease gradually spread, they both decided that rather than let a terminal illness run its course through extreme physical and emotional pain, Jean would end her own life on her own terms, at an agreed upon time and manner, arranging her own last days. Readers will witness the personal pain and emotional distress they endured, as well as the legal repercussions Derek faced following her death. As Humphry writes, ?It would be far more preferable to legalize medically assisted suicide for terminally ill adults, for it is a tremendous strain and risk put on families.” To know why he has maintained this struggle for choice in dying, against powerful religious and political forces it is necessary to understand the whole man. In Good Life, Good Death, readers will appreciate the fight he has gone through so that others might consider the option of dying with dignity.