Wow! eBook
In Search of Gentle Death: The Fight for Your Right to Die with Dignity
Author(s): Richard N. Cote (Author), Derek Humphry (Foreword)
- Publisher: Corinthian Books
- Publication Date: 15 Jun. 2012
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 465 pages
- ISBN-10: 1929175361
- ISBN-13: 9781929175369
Book Description
In 2007, author Richard N. Dick Côté made the amazing discovery: that his former minister, a Unitarian, had been led by his work with AIDS-related activism to become an exit counselor; a person trained to educate the dying about their full range of options and be at their bedside if they had chosen a self-guided death. What he learned while helping his Harvard-educated friend avoid extradition to Ireland on an assisted suicide charge drew him into the underground world of those on the front lines of the battle to enable all people to die with dignity at the time, place, and under the conditions of their own choosing.An affiliation of forty-four organizations in twenty-five countries, the international right-to-die movement holds as its core belief that each person is inherently vested with the personal autonomy to make all the important decisions in his or her life. It promotes the concept that each of us should have the option of a humane, self-chosen death and that knowing a peaceful end is possible can enhance the celebration of life. Written in nontechnical language for a general audience and intensely documented for the scholar, Côté’s book explores the modern history of the movement through the lives of its founders, leaders, and activists. Using international personal case histories, it also portrays the often heart-breaking conflict between the final wishes of those who are living or dying in pain and the religious, medical, and government authorities who will do anything to stop them from ending their own livesand persecute those who help them.Côté based this unique book on five years of intensive primary source research and more than one hundred in-depth interviews with death-with-dignity pioneers, leaders, and exit guides on four continents. He is an award-winning author and social historian with more than twenty books to his credit, many of which received high marks from the most critical professional reviewers.
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
WHO OWNS MY LIFE? “I want to ask you, gentlemen, if I cannot give consent to my own death, then whose body is this? Who owns my life?” Sue Rodriguez to a Canadian parliamentary committee, 1992.Working together actively since 1975, a loosely-linked yet intensely devoted international network of death-with-dignity activists have helped those terminally ill or suffering from intolerable, untreatable pain or anguish to be able to make their transition from a tortured life to the release of a painless, peaceful death with dignity. This is their story, told through the eyes and words of the people who suffer and the right-to-die organizations and activists who seek to help them achieve a peaceful death on their own terms. It expresses the voice of those who support each individual’s right to die at the time, place, and under the conditions of their own choosing, while respecting the views of those who do not agree with them.
About the Author
Richard N. (“Dick”) Côté is the internationally-known author of three acclaimed biographies, two histories, and a contemporary novel. His previous book, City of Heroes: The Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886, was published in 2006. His newest, In Search of Gentle Death: The Fight for Your Right to Die With Dignity, the product of five years’ full-time work explores the history of the international death-with-dignity movement and the present-day methods that readers can use to ensure that their end-of-life directions are honored.The movement’s core belief is that the right to die when, where, and under the circumstances of one’s own choosing is the ultimate civil liberty. The book describes how people with terminal medical conditions or those who are experiencing unrelenting pain can plan and choose a dignified, peaceful death using simple, legal technology and methods, surrounded by their family and friends, as they choose.The book is available at www.corinthianbooks.com and www.Amazon.com in both a deluxe hardcover / library edition and as an electronic book (eBook) in both Amazon Kindle and epub (all other ebook readers and PCs) versions. Other paper and digital book vendors in other countries will be added as soon as possible.Dick majored in political science and journalism at Butler University in Indianapolis. He spent six years in the U.S. Air Force, where he served in the Vietnam War, and then eight years conducting historical research and writing in Wisconsin. In the fall of 1979 he joined the staff of the South Carolina Historical Society, where he worked for four years before turning to writing full-time. Since the mid-1980s he has conducted extensive research into Southern biography, social history, plantation life and culture, microcultures, architecture, the Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886, and the international death-with-dignity movement. He speaks at international conferences worldwide about right-to-die issues, including Paris (2008), Melbourne (2010) and Zürich (2012).Dick has been chosen as a Featured Author and a Master Class Instructor by numerous American book festivals. In 2004 he was awarded the Bobby Gilmer Moss Award in History by the Daughters of the American Revolution for his outstanding contributions to historical writing. In the United States, he has appeared on C-Span 2/Book TV and was a featured expert in programs by Dateline NBC and The Weather Channel, as well as guest appearances on radio and TV shows and interviews in Ireland, Scotland, and in South America. He delights in sharing his love of history, biography, and end-of-life choices. Dick lives in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, USA where he writes and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Corinthian Books. He also lectures and holds seminars worldwide.
