Humans have expressed ideas about death since cave paintings and stone tablets. In this space we’re offering some more recent books that we find particularly important, thought provoking, and helpful.
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Scripting Death: Stories of Assisted Dying in America
This book, writes NH Options ally Charles Felton, discusses the problems and various practical aspects navigating Vermont’s Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act. The author is a research anthropologist at the Center for Bioethics at the University of North Carolina. She interviewed patients, caregivers, activists, healthcare providers, and legislators. It’s an important contribution for everyone working on legalizing medical aid in dying – and especially for us next door in New Hampshire. There’s a link to the author discussing her work: Watch here.
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss
Bloom’s powerful, poignant, and deeply humane story of her husband’s living with early onset Alzheimer’s – and his choice to end his life. Bloom, a noted novelist, is also a therapist. With sometimes painful honesty, she describes their journey of sorrow, anger, confusion, frustration, joy, beauty, and deep love. Their story begs the question, why should Americans have to travel to Switzerland to take control of their own deaths?
When My Time Comes
After her husband’s death, Rehm committed herself to the movement for death with dignity. The former NPR radio host interviewed a range of medical professionals, family members, advocates, ethicists, and others on both sides of right to die issues.