From the author of the phenomenal #1 national bestseller Final Exit, a collection of moving, true stories about terminally ill people who chose to die on their own terms. Humphry, founder of the National Hemlock Society, provides valuable information on the proper use of lethal drugs to accomplish a death with dignity.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Derek Humphry, a British/American journalist, founded the Hemlock Society in l980 in his garage in Santa Monica, California. It grew into a national organization and published many books, including this one and 'Final Exit'. Hemlock ceased in 2003 in a merger.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Derek Humphry was born in Bath, England, 04.29.1930 and brought up in a broken family. Despite a poor education, further damaged by six years of war, Derek determined to become a writer. Starting as a newspaper messenger boy on the Yorkshire Post at 15, he worked his way up as a reporter on the Bristol Evening World, the Manchester Evening News to the London Daily Mail, the London Sunday Times and finally the Los Angeles Times.
Always an advocacy journalist, Derek wrote books on race relations, police corruption and a biography of Michael X. For 'Because They're Black' he won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize.
When the wife to whom he had been married for 22 years developed inoperable cancer, he nursed her for two years until she asked him to help her die. Close to the end, Jean chose to end her life with lethal drugs to avoid further suffering. In time, he married again and moved to America.
Derek published in l978 a little book Jean's Way describing Jean's final years and his part in helping her to die peacefully. It became a bestseller and was translated into major languages.
The public response to the book caused him to start the Hemlock Society USA in 1980 from his garage in Santa Monica. Hemlock's purpose was to help people in similar situations as Jean's and also to reform the laws to permit physician-assisted suicide.
Derek built Hemlock into a national organization, with 40,000 members and 80 chapters. In l991 he wrote 'Final Exit' - a 'how-to' book for the dying to bring their suffering to an end if they chose. To much surprise, it became a #1 bestseller within six months. It was translated into 12 languages. Random House keeps the 3rd edition of 'Final Exit' in print in 2010, and it is still in print in Spanish and Italian. USA TODAY in 2007 chose it as one of the most significant books of the past 25 years.
His latest book is a memoir --'Good Life, Good Death' -- covering 79 years of an eventful life -- ranging from an unusual childhood in a broken home, a father in prison, a mother who ran away to Australia, then experiencing an ugly war which started when he was nine. The book relates his remarkable experiences in journalism, outstanding interviews with famous people, and his struggle against racism. Derek immigrated to the USA at age 48.
The second half of the memoir deals with his impact on the right to die movement in America, starting and building the Hemlock Society for 12 years, and pioneering the Oregon Death With Dignity Act (l994), the first such physician-assisted suicide law in North America.
Proud to be a paperback writer, Derek has published 15 books in 40 years. Only two have been hardbacks.
Derek is president of the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization (ERGO), chairman of the advisory board of the Final Exit Network (successor to the now defunct Hemlock Society), and an advisor to the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, of which he has been president.
Although unlettered himself, Derek has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, USC, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, and others.
In his book "A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America,' Ian Dowbiggin
writes: "Humphry ranks as one of the preeminent pioneers of the American euthanasia movement." (OUP. 2003. Page 149). In their book 'Dying Right', the authors Daniel Hillyard and John Dombrink write: "Derek Humphry is widely acknowledged to be the initiatior of the euthanasia reform movement in the United States." (Routledge NY 2001. Page 82.)
A citizen of the USA and UK, he lived in Los Angeles l978-88 and since then in western Oregon. He has been married to Gretchen (nee Crocker) since l991.
[Update: 22 March 2010]
Always an advocacy journalist, Derek wrote books on race relations, police corruption and a biography of Michael X. For 'Because They're Black' he won the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize.
When the wife to whom he had been married for 22 years developed inoperable cancer, he nursed her for two years until she asked him to help her die. Close to the end, Jean chose to end her life with lethal drugs to avoid further suffering. In time, he married again and moved to America.
Derek published in l978 a little book Jean's Way describing Jean's final years and his part in helping her to die peacefully. It became a bestseller and was translated into major languages.
The public response to the book caused him to start the Hemlock Society USA in 1980 from his garage in Santa Monica. Hemlock's purpose was to help people in similar situations as Jean's and also to reform the laws to permit physician-assisted suicide.
Derek built Hemlock into a national organization, with 40,000 members and 80 chapters. In l991 he wrote 'Final Exit' - a 'how-to' book for the dying to bring their suffering to an end if they chose. To much surprise, it became a #1 bestseller within six months. It was translated into 12 languages. Random House keeps the 3rd edition of 'Final Exit' in print in 2010, and it is still in print in Spanish and Italian. USA TODAY in 2007 chose it as one of the most significant books of the past 25 years.
His latest book is a memoir --'Good Life, Good Death' -- covering 79 years of an eventful life -- ranging from an unusual childhood in a broken home, a father in prison, a mother who ran away to Australia, then experiencing an ugly war which started when he was nine. The book relates his remarkable experiences in journalism, outstanding interviews with famous people, and his struggle against racism. Derek immigrated to the USA at age 48.
The second half of the memoir deals with his impact on the right to die movement in America, starting and building the Hemlock Society for 12 years, and pioneering the Oregon Death With Dignity Act (l994), the first such physician-assisted suicide law in North America.
Proud to be a paperback writer, Derek has published 15 books in 40 years. Only two have been hardbacks.
Derek is president of the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization (ERGO), chairman of the advisory board of the Final Exit Network (successor to the now defunct Hemlock Society), and an advisor to the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, of which he has been president.
Although unlettered himself, Derek has been a guest lecturer at Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, USC, UCLA, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, and others.
In his book "A Merciful End: The Euthanasia Movement in Modern America,' Ian Dowbiggin
writes: "Humphry ranks as one of the preeminent pioneers of the American euthanasia movement." (OUP. 2003. Page 149). In their book 'Dying Right', the authors Daniel Hillyard and John Dombrink write: "Derek Humphry is widely acknowledged to be the initiatior of the euthanasia reform movement in the United States." (Routledge NY 2001. Page 82.)
A citizen of the USA and UK, he lived in Los Angeles l978-88 and since then in western Oregon. He has been married to Gretchen (nee Crocker) since l991.
[Update: 22 March 2010]
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Moving accounts of dying people who accelerated their ends,
By A Customer
This review is from: Let Me Die Before I Wake: Hemlock's Book of Self-Deliverance for the Dying (Paperback)
This book preceeded the textbook on euthanasia, Final Exit,and is different in that it relates true stories of dying people and exactly how they took their lives to escape prolonged suffering.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Choosing to stop futile suffering,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Let Me Die Before I Wake (Paperback)
What was vaguely addressed in this book was that suicide because of depression or mental problems is a very poor choice and should not be the first option but euthanasia for those suffering agonizing, debilitating illness should be a choice made when the mind of the victim is still lucid enough to make such a final decision. If you were in excruciating pain from which there was no relief, bedridden, and no hope for any quality of life ever, you might give this book 5 stars. In that situation, you would fully understand why ending life may be the very best thing to do for yourself. I deducted one star because the problem of suicide because of depression needed to be further discussed and discouraged more strongly.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tales of tragedy,
This review is from: Let Me Die Before I Wake (Paperback)
This is a difficult book to read. Not because it is poorly written, on the contrary, but because of the stories contained within. In it the author describes the steps taken by several people in order to end their own lives (mostly through overdoses), in some cases through the direct help of close relatives, with one story covering the death of the author's first wife. These stories serve as the argument for the means of committing suicide being made available, and being accepted by society, and shows how terminally ill people may preserve their dignity by taking their lives into their own hands. In addition, two of the stories show the trouble that may result from the lack of assistance in such an endeavor, and the additional pain that may result when clumsy attempts fail and the people involved have to go further than should ever be necessary (shooting, asphyxiation).The book also contains advice on how to commit suicide, for those who are actually contemplating such a thing, and gives good advice as to how to approach the subject, stressing an open dialogue with the nearest and dearest. However, the advise is in my opinion limited, and I would not suggest that anybody uses this book as their only reference, should they be contemplating suicide. However, as this is the first book directly dealing with this subject that I've read, I can as of yet offer no advice on other material. Another reviewer pointed out the lack of a real discussion of when suicide is warranted, which I agree with. There is a short disclaimer in the beginning of the book against "irrational suicide", but a longer discussion of this would have been usable, preferably with resources for those who need it. However, given the origin of this book as a leaflet for members of the Hemlock Society, this lack is not surprising, and therefore I will not subtract from the rating that I've chosen. To conclude: Should you be interested in the subject, then this book is definitely worth reading.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
