How to Get the Death You Want: A Practical and Moral Guide

A comprehensive manual for those reaching the end of life, and for their friends, relatives, advocates, and caretakers. Abraham describes in detail the challenges faced by those who wish to avoid months or years of painful treatment after losing hope of ever recovering any reasonable quality of life.

Subjects include:

the nature of physical death;

legal documents to clarify one’s wishes;

the need for a strong advocate to have the patient’s wishes honored;

moral issues that must be considered;

means of dying painlessly once the decision is made;

and much more, including how to respond to reluctant doctors, and the value of humor in communicating with a dying patient.

An Episcopal priest and thanatologist, John Abraham has devoted most of his adult life as a pioneer in the fields of grief therapy, hospice, death education, and, more controversially, the right-to-die movement.

This book is a product of those years of experience. Rabbi Earl A. Grollman, perhaps America’s best-known authority of death education and grief therapy, comments that “Whatever your opinions on the right-to-die movement, this is a book you must have in your library.”

Abraham is also well-known for his sometimes unconventional sense of humor; which makes it easier for people to become educated on a serious subject, to be better prepared for their own eventual deaths and to advocate for their loved ones at the end of life.

John is a graduate of The Peddie School, Colgate University, and Virginia Theological Seminary and a lifetime member of The Association for Death Education and Counseling through which he earned his advanced certification as a Fellow in Thanatology. He is also a lifetime member of all U.S. right-to-die organizations and has served with numerous groups long championing minorities and the underdog.

His primary avocations are reading, tennis, and — having enjoyed about a dozen motorcycles — he recently gave up riding a “suicycle.” The Reverend Abraham frequently gives talks and workshops on issues relating to death, grief, and the right-to-die movement. His personal Web site is www.JohnLAbraham.com.