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

Sandra Martin is the obituary columnist at the Globe and Mail. She has won the Atkinson and Canadian Journalism Fellowships and multiple National Magazine Awards. She is the editor of the critically acclaimed collection The First Man in My Life: Daughters Write about Their Fathers, and was also the co-editor of the annual Oberon Best Short Stories and Coming Attractions anthologies, and is the co-author of three books, including Rupert Brooke in Canada and Card Tricks: Bankers, Boomers, and the Explosion of Plastic Credit, which was shortlisted for the Canadian Business Book Award. A past president of PEN Canada, she lives in Toronto with her husband and her cat, Alice.

Sandra Martin's profile page

• British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
• Walrus Best Book of the Year
• Donner Prize

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

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