In Search of Gentle Death:
A Personal History of the
Death With Diginty Movementby Richard N. Côté
www.insearchofgentledeath.com
Revised May 12, 2009
If asked how they would like their death to come about, many people say that when the time comes -- hopefully a long time down the road, they quickly add -- they would like to peacefully pass away in their own bed, at home, surrounded by their loved ones. Unfortunately, these tranquil passings are progressively less common in these days of high-technology medicine.
An increasing number of people spend their last weeks on Earth in cheerless nursing homes or in hospitals, hooked up to life support equipment, experiencing unrelenting, unrelieveable pain which palliative care cannot oversome, and often in complete isolation from their friends and family. Many of these people would strongly prefer to choose a certain and painless way to depart their life on their own terms and schedule, while they are still rational and have sufficient physical and mental capacity to do so. But most state and national laws make that impossible.
Final Friends explores the rapid evolution and accelerating growth of the controversial Death-with-Dignity movement in the United States and abroad between 1975 and the present. As Derek Humphry, founder of The Hemlock Society and author of Final Exit said, the movement seeks to bring about the peaceful end of life for persons "when dying, trapped in a ruined body, or just plain terminally old, fragile, and tired of life." There is rising criticism that keeping dying people alive no matter what, and against their will, is a violation of their civil rights. As Humphry stated, "Life should not be a sentence. The freedom to die in the manner of our own choosing is the ultimate civil liberty."
Driven by public demand for legal change and an increasing public awareness of intolerable suffering being rigidly enforced by government policies and religious officials, a vigorous grassroots international Right-to-Die movement started flourishing in the mid-1970s. It fights to establish euthanasia ("good death") and the right to die at the time and place of one's own choosing as a fundamental human right, rather than a privilege subject to the arbitrary judgments or the imposition of the will of politicians, lawyers, religious leaders, or the medical establishment.
Opinions about self-deliverance and physician-assisted suicide vary greatly from country to country. But in the United States, Canada, and most Western European nations, a strong majority of the people have stated their support for laws which would enable them to legally choose how, when, and where they die. The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and, most recently, Luxembourg have already legalized euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, as have the U.S. states of Oregon, Washington, and Montana. On the other hand, suicide, assisted suicide, and euthanasia are vigorously opposed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Mormon Church, a majority of conservative and evangelical Christian denominations, and by some disability rights groups. In the face of their well-organized and vocal opposition, lawmakers worldwide have shown great reluctance to pass laws permitting the terminally ill to hasten their own deaths, even though a majority of their constituents endorse such laws.
In Search of Gentle Death will break precedent with all previous books about euthanasia and the Right-to-Die movement in three key areas. Earlier works focused chiefly on the ethical, religious, and medical viewpoints. While giving those topics full consideration, In Search of Gentle Death will tell its story by spotlighting the intensely personal and painful end-of-life crises which drove about twenty key people to create what is now the international Right-to-Die movement.
The book will also explore for the first time the role of "exit counselors," a new breed of knowledgeable volunteer guides who provide personal counseling and technical advice to those who have chosen to end their life, as well as providing emotional support, by their personal presence if and when these people do end their lives. In addition, it will examine the origins, workings, and accomplishments of the Self-Deliverance New Technology Group, known as NuTech, a small, intensely private affiliation of physicians, scientists, and self-deliverance experts who first assembled in 1999. They are dedicated to a single goal: developing methods of self-deliverance that are legal, painless, easy to use, reliable, inexpensive, present no hazard to others, and do not require the assistance or permission of any second party to use.
In Search of Gentle Death will be drawn from insightful new interviews by the author with the movement's leaders -- and their most vociferous opponents. Unlike some pro- or anti-euthanasia books, this non-partisan volume will accord all parties and their beliefs the respect to which they are entitled. The highly readable book will contain numerous illustrations, tables, an extensive bibliography, and a comprehensive index. It will be published in 2010.
About the Author
Richard N. Côté is an American humanities scholar and public speaker whose award-winning books focus on extraordinary achievement and the triumph of the human spirit. A Connecticut native and Vietnam War veteran, he majored in journalism and political science at Butler University. In 1979, he joined the staff of the South Carolina Historical Society, where he worked for several years before turning to writing full-time. He has appeared as an expert commentator on Dateline NBC, C-Span 2/Book TV, and numerous television and radio programs. His books have received excellent reviews in The American Library Association's Booklist and in the Library Journal. In 2004 he was awarded the Bobby Gilmer Moss Award in History by the Daughters of the American Revolution. His religious views have evolved over a lifetime of study. He was born into a Catholic family in Connecticut and was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. In his high school years, he took instruction and joined the Congregational Church (now the United Church of Christ), a liberal Christian denomination. As an adult, he was drawn to the multi-cultural perspectives of the Unitarian-Universalist Association. Subsequent studies in Eastern philosophies led him to appreciate the moral values and ethical perspectives of Buddhism. He watched his mother, Anne, die an agonizing death by unstoppable deterioration from Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS - Lou Gherig's Disease, known elsewhere as motor neurone disease) between 1982 and her ultimate death in an Indianapolis hospice in 1984. Côté himself was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2005. He immediately elected to have a radical prostatectomy, and has been a grateful and healthy cancer survivor ever since.
Côté's books reflect intensive research based on primary information sources and direct interviews. Clearly written for the lay reader and meticulously documented for the scholar, he explores diverse perspectives and presents conflicting opinions, so that his readers may draw their own conclusions about the subject of hastened death. In addition to the present topic, he has authored, co-authored, or edited books on extraordinary women of the nineteenth century, emotional healing, male and female sexual abuse, medical malpractice, mind-control cults, cross-cultural relationships, and cryonic life preservation. He may be reached as follows:
Richard N. Côté
Email: dickcote@earthlink.net
Telephone (+1) 843.881.6080
Fax: (+1) 843.278.8456
Skype ID: dickcote
Recent books: www.corinthianbooks.com