A Dignified Ending

The wave of aging baby boomers and people with terminal or dire conditions are asking profound questions: After a well-lived life, how will I die? How will I maintain my dignity without being a burden on others? They are examining and wanting to plan and control their own end of life. Dr. Lewis M. Cohens insightful and fascinating book candidly and high-mindedly tackles the timely issues surrounding planned death, a topic more and more likely to touch us all. -- Ken Dychtwald, CEO of Age Wave and bestselling author of "BodyMind" and "Age Wave" In A Dignified Ending, palliative care psychiatrist and end-of-life choice champion Lewis Cohen opens our eyes and touches our hearts once again with a wide range of deeply moving stories about life-ending choices as told to him by dying patients and their caregivers, and then analyzed by a wide range of advocates and opponents. Those personally struggling with these questions, and those on all sides of this societal debate would do well to learn from this thoughtful, provocative exploration. -- Timothy E. Quill, MD, MACP, FAAHPM In A Dignified Ending, Lewis Cohen illuminates the realities of assisted dying. Rather than rehearse familiar arguments, Cohens vivid prose tells the stories. Of leaders in the right-to-die movement and of opponents without shying away from their missteps and conflicts. The most striking stories are of persons who chose to end their lives with the help of family, friends, and volunteers. His sympathies are clear, but Cohen has tried to listen attentively to and represent fairly a full range of voices in this most divisive debate. -- Tom Murray, President Emeritus, The Hastings Center Seven states and the District of Columbia have already legalized aid-in-dying. Dr. Lewis Cohen poignantly shows us the pitfalls of what can so easily happen at the end of life in those other states. Both a psychiatrist and an author, he gives special attention to the problems of dementia, addressing issues not covered in depth before. It is both a wake-up call and a helpful salve for taking better care of ourselves and those we love as we near the end of life's great journey. I have written extensively on this subject but I learned a lot by reading this engaging book. -- Marilyn Webb, Author of "The Good Death: The New American Search to Reshape the End of Life"

Lew Cohen MD, is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for Medicine and Health (2008), two Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency awards (2008, 2015), and a Bogliasco Fellowship for the Arts and Humanity (2014), as well as the highest honors given by the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine and the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society. He has been a contributor to the Atlantic, Slate, and Huffington Post and is the author of a nonfiction book, No Good Deed: A Story of Medicine, Murder Accusations, and the Debate Over How We Die (2010). Lew is a psychiatrist at Baystate Medical Center where he is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School-Baystate and an Adjunct Clinical Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is an active palliative medicine researcher with over 100 academic publications relating to the integration of bioethics, nephrology, and psychiatry.

Part I. Foreword Chapter 1. The Admiral and His Wife Chapter 2. The Geriatric Romeo and Juliet Chapter 3. Its Not Like Shes Suffering Chapter 4. Sigmund Freuds Cancer Chapter 5.You Dont Want Custer Chapter 6. How Life Turned Out Chapter 7. Putting the Mensch in Dementia Chapter 8. You Wont Let Me Suffer? Chapter 9. My Way Chapter 10. Fate Worse Than Death Chapter 11. Nothing But Torture Part II Chapter 12. Goodbye, My Love Chapter 13 .Dr. Death Chapter 14. Hemlock Chapter 15. A Well-Worn Sweater Chapter 16. Bring Out Yer Dead Chapter 17. The Federation Chapter 18. Caring Friends Chapter 19. The Metamorphosis of Caring Friends Chapter 20. The New Dr. Death Chapter 21. The Final Two Cases Part III Chapter 22. Four Boxes of Chocolate Chapter 23. On Her Own Terms Chapter 24. Golden Summer Chapter 25. Dont Sugarcoat It Chapter 26. Enough is Enough Chapter 27. What She Wanted Chapter 28. Cowboys, Mormons, and Sundance Part IV Chapter 29. We Have Choices Chapter 30. Last Thoughts Authors Notes, Acknowledgments