The Good Death Through Time (Caitlin Mahar, MUP)

Historian Caitlin Mahar’s The Good Death Through Time joins previous works exploring euthanasia—see, for example, Assisted by Stefanie Green—but it is unique in its approach to the story. Mahar’s book is an account of the legal, medical and philosophical attitudes towards euthanasia over time. It is meticulously researched and relies on a close examination of the facts. Whereas Green’s book is a subjective account of what it is to be the person who arranges a legal death—the decisions, the reactions, the grief, the stories—there is little if any judgement to be found in Mahar’s exploration, even when looking at the attitudes toward euthanasia and eugenics—a field in which Australian theorists were front and centre in the early parts of last century. Mahar draws attention to the fact that the Northern Territory’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act 1995 was the first legislation in the world allowing doctors to actively assist patients to die, and documents the reaction of some First Nations people to the concept of assisted dying. The book is also topical: recent changes to federal legislation surrounding euthanasia will see debate across the country, making The Good Death Through Time a comprehensive overview of the subject for those interested. Mahar’s unflinching research and writing is exactly what many nonfiction readers crave; in her book we come face-to-face with ourselves as a species.

Rebecca Whitehead is a freelance writer from Melbourne. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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Category: Reviews