Maggie Bawden
‘With the Assisted Dying Bill now tabled for parliamentary debate, this book is a must-read.'
THE AUTHOR
Brian Verity lived through the trauma of finding he had married into a family whose members all carried the gene for Huntington’s disease and who suffered accordingly — as he would too, though for other reasons.
It became his mission to mitigate the consequences of his wife's condition and educate the public about its horrors.
Following his wife’s suicide, he was questioned at length by the police and kept under surveillance for a year. He went on to campaign for voluntary euthanasia. He died in 2019.
Stephen Games, who edited his book, was in contact with Brian Verity in the year before he died, and is available to talk about the raw issues raised by the author and about the wider context of the book.
For all media-related inquiries, contact EnvelopeBooks' PR, Alan Jepson.
SUMMARY
When Mary Verity started to display the same early symptoms of Huntington's disease that her mother and older brother had shown, no one took her condition seriously or knew how to respond to it.
From the health and social services departments of the local authority to the government and the church, Mary was given no choices about how to plan for what would become her inevitable physical and mental deterioration.
Support bodies were no help either.
In this tough, uncompromising book, Brian Verity raises difficult ethical questions about the freedoms granted to carriers of the Huntington's gene to raise children of their own and the lack of freedom given to them to end their lives.
This is not a book with a happy ending, nor have its full ramifications yet been embedded into our supposedly caring society.
Brian Verity
Why My Wife Had To Die
(Non-fiction)
PUBLISHER EnvelopeBooks
FORMAT Paperback/Softback
EXTENT 302 pages
SIZE 203mm x 127mm (8” x 5”)
ISBN 9781915023032
BIC CODES BM, JFME, JHBZ
GENRES Non-fiction, Health, Genetics,
Assisted dying, Euthanasia, Eugenics
RRP £12.99
PUBLICATION DATE 3 March 2022
PR/PUBLICITY Alan Jepson
CONTACT alanjepson@gmail.com
PHONE 07535 757740