A remarkably nuanced, empathetic, and well-crafted work of journalism, [The Inevitable] explores what might be called the right-to-die underground, a world of people who wonder why a medical system that can do so much to try to extend their lives can do so little to help them end those lives in a peaceful and painless way.”–Brooke Jarvis, The New Yorker

More states and countries are passing right-to-die laws that allow the sick and suffering to end their lives at pre-planned moments, with the help of physicians. But even where these laws exist, they leave many people behind. The Inevitable moves beyond margins of the law to the people who are meticulously planning their final hours–far from medical offices, legislative chambers, hospital ethics committees, and polite conversation. It also shines a light on the people who help them: loved ones and, sometimes, clandestine groups on the Internet that together form the “euthanasia underground.”

Katie Engelhart, a veteran journalist, focuses on six people representing different aspects of the right to die debate. Two are doctors: a California physician who runs a boutique assisted death clinic and has written more lethal prescriptions than anyone else in the U.S.; an Australian named Philip Nitschke who lost his medical license for teaching people how to end their lives painlessly and peacefully at “DIY Death” workshops. The other four chapters belong to people who said they wanted to die because they were suffering unbearably–of old age, chronic illness, dementia, and mental anguish–and saw suicide as their only option.

Spanning North America, Europe, and Australia, The Inevitable offers a deeply reported and fearless look at a morally tangled subject. It introduces readers to ordinary people who are fighting to find dignity and authenticity in the final hours of their lives.

Available from most bookstores, including:

• Amazon AU
• Book Depository
• Booktopia
• Kobo (ebook or audiobook)
• Readings

Cory Taylor wrote this remarkable book in the space of a few weeks before her death from melanoma-related cancer in July 2016. In a tremendous creative surge, as her body weakened, she described the experience of knowing she would soon die.

Her powerful and beautifully written book is a clear-eyed account of the tangle of her feelings, her reflections on her life, her memories of the lives and deaths of her parents. She tells us why it was important to her to have the ability to choose the circumstances of her death.

Dying: A Memoir is a breathtaking book about vulnerability and strength, courage and humility, anger and acceptance. It is a deeply affecting meditation on dying, but it is also a funny and wise tribute to life.

Cory Taylor was born in Queensland in 1955. She was an award-winning novelist and screenwriter who also published short fiction and children’s books. Her first novel, Me and Mr Booker, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Pacific Region) in 2012 and her second novel, My Beautiful Enemy, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award in 2014. She died on 5 July 2016, a couple of months after Dying: A Memoir was published.

Available from most bookstores, including:

• Book Depository
• Readings
• Amazon AU
• Kobo (ebook only)

Time to Die is essential reading for anyone following the Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) debate in Australia. It brings readers up-to-date with the state of the VAD debate in Australia, with particular focus on the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into End-oflifeChoices and the subsequent draft bill to legislate assisted dying.

As in his previous book, A Good Death (2008), Dr Syme draws on his many years counselling dying patients. In some cases, as he has stated on national television, he personally enabled people to die at the time and place of their own choosing.

Time to Die explores the notion of dignity in some detail,and discusses what we mean by ‘existential suffering’. Dr Syme makes a persuasive case that any legislative framework for assisted dying in Australia should cover not only the terminally ill, but also those who are suffering from what he calls ‘advanced incurable illnesses’, such as Motor Neuron Disease. He argues for this in a compelling chapter, which analyses the notion of suffering, with reference to religiously-inspired ideals.

Time to Die by Dr Rodney Syme can be purchased directly from leading online bookstores.

Rodney Syme’s candid and controversial account of the terminally ill people who he has assisted to end their lives.

Australia’s bravest and most honest writer explores the devastating aftermath of her elderly mother’s decision to end her own life.

Nikki Gemmell’s world changed forever in October 2015 when the body of her elderly mother was found and it became clear she had decided to end her own life. After the immediate shock and devastation came the guilt and the horror, for Nikki, her family, relatives and friends. No note was left, so the questions that Elayn’s death raised were endless. Was the decision an act of independence or the very opposite? Was it a desperate act driven by hopelessness and anger, or was her euthanasia a reasoned act of empowerment?

After is the story of Elayn Gemmell – and the often difficult, prickly relationship between mothers and daughters, and how that changes over time. As anguished as it truthful, as powerful as it is profound, After is about life, death, elderly parents, mothers and daughters, hurt and healing, and about how little, sometimes, we know the ones we love the most.

A deeply intimate, fiercely beautiful, blazingly bold and important book.

Available at

• Booktopia
• Harper Collins
• Amazon

A successful young lawyer in Wellington, Lecretia Seales met and fell in love with Matt Vickers in 2003. In Lecretia’s Choice, Matt tells the story of their life together, and how it changed when his proud, fiercely independent wife was diagnosed with a brain tumour and forced to confront her own mortality.

The death she faced—slow, painful, dependent—was completely at odds with how she had lived her life. Lecretia wanted to die with dignity, to be able to say goodbye well, and not to suffer unnecessarily—but the law denied her that choice. With her characteristic spirit, she decided to mount a challenge in New Zealand’s High Court, but as the battle raged, Lecretia’s strength faded. She died on 5 June 2015, at the age of forty-two, the day after her family learned that the court had ruled against her.Lecretia’s Choice is not only a moving love story but compulsory reading for everyone who cares about the dignity we afford terminally ill people who want to die on their own terms.

Available at 

• Booktopia
• Amazon

A Beautiful Sunset is a fascinating novel that tells the story of four people facing death, two of them by Voluntary Assisted Dying. Three practice Christianity, the fourth is an atheist, and together, they share a Muslim woman as their doctor.

Everald Compton has advocated for Voluntary Assisted Dying for 50 years. Now, In A Beautiful Sunset, he has turned his expertise toward crafting complex and humane stories that explore coming to terms with the end of life.

Read this book and you will gain a clearer understanding of Voluntary Assisted Dying. It may also inspire you to happily plan your own ideal final curtain call. Everald is 89 years old and proudly Australian. If circumstances dictate it, he is ready to end his life by VAD.

• Available at-
• Angus & Robertson
• Amazon
• Dymocks

A transformative and compassionate memoir by a leading pioneer in medically assisted dying who began her career in the maternity ward and now helps patients who are suffering explore and then fulfill their end of life choices.

Dr. Stefanie Green has been forging new paths in the field of medical assistance in dying since 2016. In her landmark memoir, Dr. Green reveals the reasons a patient might seek an assisted death, how the process works, what the event itself can look like, the reactions of those involved, and what it feels like to oversee proceedings and administer medications that hasten death. She describes the extraordinary people she meets and the unusual circumstances she encounters as she navigates the intricacy, intensity, and utter humanity of these powerful interactions.

Deeply authentic and powerfully emotional, This Is Assisted Dying contextualizes the myriad personal, professional, and practical issues surrounding assisted dying by bringing readers into the room with Dr. Green, sharing the voices of her patients, her colleagues, and her own narrative. As our population confronts issues of wellness, integrity, agency and community, and how to live a connected, meaningful life, this progressive and compassionate book by a physician at the forefront of medically assisted dying offers comfort and potential relief.

This Is Assisted Dying will change the way people think about their choices at the end of life, and show that assisted dying is less about death than about how we wish to live.

• Available March 29, 2022 at
• Amazon
• Booktopia
• Simon and Schuster