A Good Death: Making the Most of Our Final Choices

Having a good death is our final human right, argues Sandra Martin in this updated and expanded version of her bestselling and award-winning social history of the right to die movement in Canada and around the world.

Winner of the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, finalist for both the Donner Prize in Public Policy and the Dafoe Prize for History, A Good Death has a new chapter on Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Law.  The law allows mentally competent adults, who are suffering grievously from incurable conditions, to ask for a doctor’s help in ending their lives.

Does the law go far enough? No, says Martin. She delivers compelling stories about the patients the law ignores: people with life-crushing diseases who are condemned to suffer because their natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable. With a clear analytical eye, she exposes the law’s shortcomings and outlines constitutional challenges, including the presumed right of publicly-funded faith-based institutions to deny suffering patients a legal medical service.

Martin argues that Canada can set an example for the world if it can strike a balance between compassion for the suffering and protection of the vulnerable, between individual choice and social responsibility. A Good Death asks the tough question none of us can avoid: How do you want to die? The answer will change your life—and your death.

“[An] excellent new book. . . .The timeliness is hard to overstate.” —The Globe and Mail

“What truly distinguishes this book is the reportage on individuals and families who have fought to arrange for a better death. . . . These first-hand experiences are the beating heart of a timely and powerful examination.” —2017 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction Jury Citation

Winner of the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction 
Finalist for the Donner Prize
A Globe and Mail, CBC, Walrus, and Hill Times Best Book of the Year

HAVING A GOOD DEATH IS OUR FINAL HUMAN RIGHT

We can’t avoid death, but the prospect of dying became a lot less terrifying when Parliament legalized physician-assisted death in 2016. Now, mentally competent adults who are terminally ill and suffering grievously from intolerable and incurable conditions have the right to ask for a doctor’s help in ending their lives. 

Does the law go far enough? No, says Sandra Martin in this timely and inspiring book about palliative care and patient autonomy. She delivers compelling stories about the patients the law ignores: people with life-crushing diseases who are condemned to suffer because their natural deaths are not reasonably foreseeable.

Martin argues that Canada can set an example for the world if it can strike a balance between compassion for the suffering and protection of the vulnerable, between individual choice and social responsibility. And she shows us the path forward as she charts the history of the right-to-die movement here and abroad. A Good Death asks the tough question none of us can avoid: How do you want to die? The answer will change your life—and your death.

Sandra Martin has written a courageous, necessary book that provides us with naked glimpses of the messy realities and enormous challenges--medical, familial, societal, political--in providing appropriate end-of-life care, up to and including physician-assisted death. There are no bromides here. But there is a powerful, penetrating message: A good death should be considered a human right, and how we die the final choice each of us makes in life. - André Picard, health columnist, The Globe and Mail and author of The Gift of Death: Confronting Canada's Tainted Blood Tragedy

A timely & deeply felt account of assisted dying: the histories, the issues. - Margaret Atwood via @Atwood

A must read on this profoundly important topic, with no stone left unturned, no matter how painful or raw the issues. - Svend Robinson, NDP MP 1979-2004

A Good Death is Canada’s Being Mortal. But where Dr. Atul Gawande skirted the important issue of assisted dying, Sandra Martin lays bare the hypocrisy of a system that views death as a failure. I hope Canadians will read this book and use it to launch their own open and frank discussions about how they want to die. - Maureen Taylor, Physician Assistant and widow of Dr. Donald Low

Sandra Martin frankly challenges us to confront death. Through A Good Death, we learn about the people who helped shape our assisted death revolution. We are drawn deep into the complex medical, legal, and social realities of dying in Canada--and we will be the better for it. - Jocelyn Downie, Professor, Law and Medicine, Dalhousie University; Trudeau Fellow 2015

Sandra Martin, Canada’s most eloquent obituary writer, brings her exquisite insight to the inescapable challenge of our lives: How to die. Her exploration of the human finale, including eldercare, assisted suicide, and spiritual reconciliation, help demystify the inevitable and prod us to live more profoundly. - Paula Todd, author of A Quiet Courage: Inspiring Stories From All of Us

“There is a powerful, penetrating message: A good death should be considered a human right, and how we die the final choice each of us makes in life.” - André Picard, health columnist for The Globe and Mail and author of The Gift of Death: Confronting Canada's Tainted Blood Tragedy