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Last Wish is both uplifting and heartrending. At once a beautifully-written, loving tribute to the author's mother, a harsh critique of the medical system (as it existed in the 1980's, in any case), and an unflinching exposé on assisted suicide, this engrossing and compelling story should be required reading for young and old alike.

I did notice a certain "datedness" in Rollin's depiction of race relations that some might find offensive--for example, the fact that the in-home care nurses were all Black, and one of them (a Jamaican nurse named Belva) felt uncomfortable addressing her white employer by her first name. Nonetheless, this story is as relevant today as when it was published in 1985. Whatever one's religious persuasion, we cannot know how we will feel about our life until faced with a debilitating, terminal, and tortuously painful final illness.

I am a firm believer in the right of each individual to make his or her own end-of-life decisions, including suicide if circumstances are dire enough to warrant such extreme action. I take comfort in knowing that choice is available to me–as a practical if not legal matter, and hope I am never in a position to seriously contemplate exercising it. Despite the fact that only three states (Montana, Oregon and Washington) have adopted statutes permitting physician-assisted suicide, and 36 states (including New York and California) have laws expressly criminalizing it, I assume that with the advent of the Internet, it would not be anywhere near as risky or difficult to accomplish as it was for the Rollin family.

On that score, Rollin was nothing short of phenomenal in her handling of this touchy aspect. She does not shy away from offering unsentimental, nuts-and-bolts facts, yet veers just shy of turning her book into a gory sideshow. All the while, she unabashedly handles her own misgivings and emotional torment with sensitivity and grace. I commend both her touching and delicate treatment of her mother's final wish and her courage in sharing this very important story with the public at a time when it was a far more taboo subject than one might imagine.