Description

A riveting, incisive, and wide-ranging book about the Right to Die movement, and the doctors, patients, and activists at the heart of this increasingly urgent issue.

*Finalist for the New York Public Librarys 2022 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism

A remarkably nuanced, empathetic, and well-crafted work of Jarvis, The New Yorker

More states and countries are passing right-to-die laws that allow the sick and suffering to end their lives at pre-planned moments, with the help of physicians. But The Inevitable moves beyond margins of the law to the people who are meticulously planning their final hoursfar from medical offices, legislative chambers, hospital ethics committees, and polite conversation. Further still, it shines a light on the people who help them: loved ones and, sometimes, clandestine groups on the Internet that together form the euthanasia underground.

Katie Engelhart, a veteran journalist, focuses on six people representing different aspects of the right to die debate. Two are doctors: a California physician who runs a boutique assisted death clinic and has written more lethal prescriptions than anyone else in the U.S.; an Australian named Philip Nitschke who lost his medical license for teaching people how to end their lives painlessly and peacefully at DIY Death workshops. The other four chapters belong to people who said they wanted to die because they were suffering unbearablyof old age, chronic illness, dementia, and mental anguishand saw suicide as their only option.

Spanning North America, Europe, and Australia, The Inevitable offers a deeply reported and fearless look at a morally tangled subject. It introduces readers to ordinary people who are fighting to find dignity and authenticity in the final hours of their lives.

Author: Katie Engelhart
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: St. Martins Griffin
Published: 08/09/2022
Pages: 352
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.48w x 0.92d
ISBN: 9781250827968
Language: English