Synopsis

At a time when tempers flare over the Oregon assisted suicide law and Jack Kevorkian's physician-aid-in-dying, Last Wish, Betty Rollin's groundbreaking New York Times bestseller, is due for a rereading. Last Wish is an intimate, fiercely honest memoir of a daughter's struggle to come to terms with her terminally ill mother's decision to die. More than a examination of the ethical, spiritual, and technical aspects of assisted suicide, Last Wish is also a celebration of Rollin's imperfect family, a passionate testament to her mother's character and courage, and a compelling argument for the right of the terminally ill to a humane and dignified death. The PublicAffairs paperback edition includes a new foreword, questions for thought and discussion, and a helpful resource guide.

Library Journal

In this book TV journalist Rollin chronicles her mother's two-and-a-half year illness with ovarian cancer, from the diagnosis to her decision to end her unrelenting pain and nausea through suicide. The details of Rollin's role in helping to carry out her mother's last wish by providing information, support, and the means necessary to act upon the decision are widely known through prepublication media coverage. As in her earlier book, First You Cry, about her own breast cancer and mastectomy, Rollin's crisp reportorial writing contrasts sharply with the painfully personal and highly controversial subject matter. -- Karen McNally Bensing, Metropolitan General Hospital Library, Cleveland, Ohio

Biography

Betty Rollin has been a television correspondent for NBC News and for ABC News' Nightline and has written articles for many national publications, including the New York Times. She is the author of two other autobiographical books: the bestselling First, You Cry and Am I Getting Paid for This? She lives with her husband, a mathematician, in New York City.