Each year, more than one million people and their loved-ones arrive at a decision to cease attempts at curative medical treatments and shift to hospice care, while one-in-five Americans now live in in geographical regions that have established lawful protocols allowing medical aid in dying—also known as assisted suicide. In this powerful new work, Lew Cohen, a psychiatrist and palliative medicine researcher, reveals a self-determination movement that empowers people to shape the timing and circumstances of their deaths, decriminalizes laws threatening those who help them, and passes assisted dying legislature.

He offers a vivid tapestry woven from the candid, inspirational, and graphic stories of individuals who sought to choreograph how they would die. There is nothing simple about these decisions, and A Dignified Ending tackles the intricacies of timing, the presence of dementia and other dire but not terminal conditions, the legal risks, as well as the mixed reactions of the disability community. Cohen illuminates the evolution of right-to-die organizations in the United States, and the impact of activists like Jack Kevorkian, Derek Humphrey, Faye Girsh, Cody Curtis, and Brittany Maynard.

The decision to conclude one’s life with a planned death is an emotionally polarizing subject. Nonetheless, the public increasingly wants to control how they die. This requires that people formulate their end-of-life preferences and not wait until the last moment to communicate these with physicians and families. A Dignified Ending conveys truthful and nuanced accounts of men and women who chose to die, and stories of the activists—proponents and opponents— who promote this growing right-to-die movement.

"Cohen uses case studies of a number of people, some famous and others less well known, to examine the controversial subject of medically assisted suicide. From profiles of people like Jack Kevorkian, the late doctor who became one of the more noted champions of euthanasia, to other activists and opponents of assisted suicide, Cohen looks at the timing of such decisions, the legal risks and the mixed reaction of the disability community." - Daily Hampshire Gazette

"Recommended:Cohen (Univ. of Massachusetts) provides detailed stories of persons who have determined for themselves the circumstances in which they would die. He also discusses death-hastening methods and describes the experience of selected friends and family. Also included are interviews with notable activists, for example Jack Kevorkian, Derek Humphrey (Hemlock Society), Larry Egbert (Final Exit Network), and Brittany Maynard (a terminally ill 29-year-old who moved from California to Oregon to die on her own terms). Most narratives represent US persons and organizations, but Cohen also covers a biennial conference of the World Federation of Right To Die Societies, among others, and discusses end-of-life laws in Argentina, the Netherlands, Canada, and elsewhere. Although the text is organized into four parts and thirty chapters, the purpose of this organization is unclear because the book's multiple stories are woven through its multiple chapters. The author is a strong advocate of assisted dying (with the exception of persons with psychiatric disorders), but here he presents dissenting viewpoints including that of the AMA, currently restudying the issue. Chapter notes, bibliography, and index are useful, and the book is recommended especially for its numerous compelling examples." - Choice Reviews