An old book with a lasting message
A publisher in Finland – Oy Scanria Ab – recently purchased the translation rights of the book ‘Jean’s Way’ by Derek Humphry.
This book, first published forty years ago in London, helped to launch the modern movement for assisted dying for the terminally ill by switching the discussion away from exclusively euthanasia to more acceptable, planned self-deliverance and physician-assisted suicide.
The planned manner in which Jean chose to bring to an end her terminal illness (breast cancer) prefigured the type of death with dignity laws later passed in six American states. It also launched the Hemlock Society USA in 1980 campaigning for the right to choose to die. (Hemlock closed in 2003.)
This memoir by Jean’s husband, Derek, who helped her to die peacefully, has never been out of print in English, and also been translated into Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish (Spain and Mexico), Hebrew (Israel), German and Turkish.
‘Jean’s Way’ can also be read on KINDLE.
…..
