Last Wish

by Betty Rollin

Book Overview

Betty Rollin's riveting account of her struggle to come to terms with her mother's last wish is more than a thoughtful examination of the ethical, spiritual, and technical aspects of assisted suicide. It is also a celebration of her imperfect but loving 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. First published a decade ago to...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671525972
• ISBN13: 9780671525972
• Release Date: December 1985
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Laughter and Tears

I bought this book only because I found out my great grandfather (Joseph Brooks) and family are mentioned in it. I was excited to have more information about them. What a nice surprise to find out the book is extremely well written, and had me laughing, and then crying in the same chapters. As my own mother's caretaker during the last three years of her life, I could so relate to what the author went through, and it brought back some pretty powerful emotions. The whole issue of assisted suicide was explored so well, and resulted in some good conversations between family and friends. I TOTALLY recommend this book. In fact, I gave my copy to my aunt, so I'm off to buy it again!

Beautiful

This is a beautifully written, affectionate portrait of a much-loved mother, by her adoring daughter. Part biography, part memoir, part autobiography, Betty writes with candor about her relationship with her mother and about her mother's battle with ovarian cancer. We should all be so lucky as to have someone who makes sure we get our last wish. Bravo to Betty and Ed.

A Good Read

"Last Wish" is the true story of the author, Betty Rollin's mother, a health concerned and loving woman in her mid seventies. Betty tells the story of her mothers experience with ovarian cancer and her own experience having a mother who is dying. This book shows the hardships of cancer, chemotherepy, and assisted suicide on both the cancer patients and their family and friends. Betty Rollin does a wonderfull job telling her story with great emotion and truth. I recommend this book to anyone close to someone who is a cancer patient, cancer patients, and anyone interested in or researching cancer.

A Good Read

"Last Wish" is the true story of the author, Betty Rollin's mother, a health concerned and loving woman in her mid seventies. Betty tells the story of her mothers experience after being diagnosed with ovarian cander and her own experience being related to someone with cancer. This book shoes the hardships of cancer, chemotherepy, and assisted suicide on both the cancer patients and their friends and familys. Betty Rollin does a wonderfull job telling her story with great emotion and truth. I recommend this to anyone suffering with cancer, being close to someone with cancer, interested in or researching cancer.

They made the suicide decision; would you?

Breast cancer survivor and journalist Betty Rollin, who wrote the classic First ,You Cry, has written another classic here, the story of her mother's failing battle with ovarian cancer and the suicide that Rollin and her husband, Ed, helped her mother, at her mother's insistence, to implement. I don't greatly approve of the suicide alternative nor of stories that, by making it sound so feasible, give encouragement in this direction. Not that I think God does such a great job of carrying people off; who would need suicide if that were the case? The problem is rather that the delicate boundary between personal choice and a choice brought on by social pressure gets breached as soon as a cultural movement toward the suicide option starts taking shape in the public mind. Indeed Rollin's book, whether she likes it or not, adds one more little increment to the assisted suicide ambience, an ambience that every family facing a situation becomes aware of. This being said, Rollin's mother's choice was so clearly her own and Rollin's book is so elegantly and perfectly written, without melodramatics and with just the right leavening of humor, that my impulse is to show it to everyone who might have the faintest reason to be interested! Rollin has an impeccable eye for the emotional, the medical and the legal complexities of the situation. In one episode, while she and her mother work out the plan, a chance remark sets off Rollin's tears: "Please, sweetheart, don't be upset," my mother said. "I'm doing what I want to do. I don't feel the least bit sorry for myself. I'm lucky I can get out of this. The people I feel sorry for are all the people who want to and can't. Please, sweetheart." I wiped my face with the back of my hand. "I know what you're saying, Mother, and I agree with you. But you can't expect me not to be upset. I think it's right what you're doing, but - but I love you. How can I not be upset?" She listened quietly when I said that. With some unsteadiness, I got up and blew my nose and came back and sat down. Then we resumed our plotting.In another we find the plotter's coming up against the impasse of mother's failing digestive system: "What did you find out?" she asked. "Maybe these," I said, picking up the Dalmane. "How many?" "Probably around fifteen...or more." ...She looked at the bottle again and frowned. "How will I be able to take fifteen pills?" "That's the problem," I said, "But we're gathering other ideas." "What other ideas?" Oh God, I thought, please stop. She sighed and turned her head to the wall. "Maybe you could take me to the roof of this building. I hear it's nice up there." I looked down at my hands. It was getting hard to tell when something was a joke. "Your digestion could improve, Mother. That could happen." She nodded. "So I can't die until I feel better."Staying on the safe side, legally, meant making mother's suicide seem unassisted, and this involves Betty and Ed in d