Good afternoon
I’m sure you’ll agree, this country urgently needs to have a grown-up conversation about dying. The status quo is unacceptable. The time to kick-start that conversation is now.
As one of our most dedicated supporters, I wanted you to be the first to know about our new book - Last Rights: The case for assisted dying, available to buy from next Tuesday (23rd June).
Co-written by our Chief Executive Sarah Wootton, and our Policy and Research Manager Lloyd Riley, with a foreword by Daniel Finkelstein and afterword by Baroness Molly Meacher, Last Rights is a powerful call to arms.
It pulls together the most urgent arguments for change, with stories from those who desperately need a change in the law and those who have suffered the consequences of the status quo. The current law is cruel, outdated, and unfit for purpose. Together, we can change it.
There’s just a little longer to wait to buy it, but you can read Sarah and Lloyd’s take on the new context around assisted dying and why they wrote Last Rights in this new blog.
This is a book designed to give you the tools to change minds. But you don’t have to take my word for it:
“If you think you know what you think about assisted dying, pause for a moment. Read this urgent, cogent, necessary book - and then think again”
Julian Barnes, author
“Last Rights is a human, sensible argument for changing the law on assisted dying, a moral issue whose time has come. All parliamentarians should consider the points raised in this book and question why we have abrogated our responsibility to change the law for so long.”
Rt Hon Baroness Betty Boothroyd OM
“As we continue to grapple with a pandemic that has brought our own mortality centre stage, Last Rights makes an urgent, thoughtful case for why now is the time for the victory of compassion and kindness over the cowardice and dogma that prop up the status quo”
Polly Toynbee, Guardian journalist
Look out for my email next week for the official launch next Tuesday and get ready for the campaign to step up a gear.
P.S. When the book is available to buy we’ll let you know and send you a special discount code only available to Dignity in Dying supporters.