BEFORE WE SAY GOODBYE
and
AFTER WE SAID GOODBYE
By Sean Davison
(Penguin Books, R190 each)
SEAN Davison was born in Auckland, New Zealand. After gaining his doctorate in microbiology at the University of Otago he became professor of biotechnology at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town.
He is the head of the DNA forensics laboratory, which has initiated a project to prove the innocence of people wrongfully convicted of crimes by using DNA testing that was not used at the time of their conviction.
He is married to Raine and the couple have two young boys.
Davison made headlines when he was arrested in New Zealand in 2010 for matricide. He had apparently helped his ailing mother to die. In his first book, Before We Say Goodbye, he relates the excellent relationship he had with his mother, Pat Ferguson.
She lived in New Zealand where she was a practising psychiatrist. At the age of 84, she was terminally ill with cancer. She suffered greatly and wished to die. Because her body did not want to give up, she asked her son, Sean, to help her die.
Written as a diary, he candidly recounts the emotional struggle he went through. He says in his foreword he went to New Zealand to be with his mother until the end.
When she asked him to help her die, he found that his life, too, began to unravel.
“She and I, both believing like many people that the law should permit voluntary euthanasia with safeguards, had spoken of it and been in agreement.
“But it is something else when one is expected to put this belief into practice.”
He writes that the reason for publishing this book was to help open people’s eyes to issues surrounding death.
“I believe those I dealt with, and my mother faces, are far more common than one would imagine. I think my book may prepare people and make them less afraid. We learn from other people’s experiences and I hope that by sharing ours it will help better prepare others.”
In his first book he does not reveal that he helped his mother to die, and how. This he does in his second book, After We Said Goodbye. It covers his arrest, trial and sentencing, and the dramatic events which followed.
Presumably many people die through assisted suicide.
Davison has become a vocal activist for the right to die in dignity. He says he wrote this book while under house arrest.
“It was certainly a healing process to write about my long saga, but I also hope it will further encourage a debate that will lead to law change.”
The books contain pictures of Davison and his mother.
It is essential to read both these books. We never know when we may have to deal with a situation similar to the one Davison had to face.