Good Life, Good Death: The Memoir of a Right to Die Pioneer

The author of the New York Times bestseller Final Exit tells of his transformation into one of the world’s most renowned assisted suicide advocates. 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 Jean’s Way (a UK bestseller). 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 terminal cancer. As the disease gradually spread, they both decided that Jean would end her own life on her own terms. Readers will witness the personal pain and emotional distress they endured, as well as the legal repercussions Derek faced following her death. To know why Derek 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. Read more