Title: But what if she wants to die
First published: 1997
Description: "George E. Delury writes with great candor about the role he played in assisting in the suicide of Myrna Lebov, his wife of twenty-two years. Myrna was afflicted with multiple sclerosis, an incurable, crippling disease. Confined to a wheelchair for over four years, she also suffered from increasingly severe mental losses."--BOOK JACKET.

"During her final months, Delury kept a diary in which he agonized over how he could help Myrna as she vacillated between a desire to die and a wish to live, between depression and euphoria."--BOOK JACKET.

""Her suffering," he writes, "was largely psychological and easily dissimulated. Most of the time she disguised the fact that she chafed terribly at the restrictions on her life, and at the necessary but boring concentration on the physical details of managing her handicaps. In that, I suffered with her.

As her mind showed increasing signs of decay, I mourned the slow disappearance of the woman I loved - the lively and insightful conversationalist, the perceptive observer of nuances, the amusing commentator on social foibles. But when she returned to full awareness, as she did periodically, I was again inspired by her grace and courage, as was everyone who knew her well.""--BOOK JACKET.

"Delury describes with searing honesty how the woman he loved had become the focus and burden of his existence, and the dilemmas he faced in helping her fulfill her wish to die, even though doing so might break the law."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects: Right to die, Assisted suicide, New York Times reviewed, Multiple sclerosis, patients, biography
People: George E. Delury, Myrna Lebov
LC classification: R726 .D47 1997