IN A PERFECT WORLD, when life is coming to its natural end, most
people would like to die peacefully, at home, surrounded by loving
friends and family members. Sadly, this rarely happens anymore. Instead,
countless numbers of people are forced to live out their last months
and years in unbearable, untreatable pain against their will, kept
alive solely by machines they don’t want and laws they can’t
escape. Polls show that a large majority of all people in the Western
world believe that physicians should be allowed to hasten the deaths
of rational, terminally ill people experiencing unendurable pain if
requested. But most local laws forbid what many believe to be the ultimate
civil liberty: the right to die.
This 42-page booklet examines the lives and achievements of a tiny
group of people who banded together in 1999. Their goal: to develop
simple, painless, legal end-of-life liberation technologies which enable
those facing unendurable pain and suffering to die with dignity at
the time and place of their own choosing. These pioneers formed an
almost unknown group called NuTech. This is the only time they have
ever told their story, and they told it to only one writer, a social
historian who lives in the American South. This booklet is one chapter
from a forthcoming book by Richard N. Côté titled Final
Friends: A Personal History of the Right-to-Die Movement.
You may read a preview at www.finalfriends.net.
RICHARD N. CÔTÉ is the author of three acclaimed biographies,
a social history, many professional journal articles, a contemporary
novel, and co-wrote or edited over thirty other books. In 2004, he
was awarded the Bobby Gilmer Moss Award in History by the Daughters
of the American Revolution for his outstanding historical writing.
After college, six years’ service in the U.S. Air Force, and
four years on the staff of the South Carolina Historical Society, he
turned to writing full-time. He has conducted extensive research into
American biography, social history, and the international right-to-die
movement. Dick has been chosen as a featured author and lecturer by
numerous book festivals and his books have been featured on Dateline
NBC, The Weather Channel, and Book TV. He lives near historic Charleston,
South Carolina.
Copyright © 2008 by Richard N. Côté.
All rights reserved. 
