In February and March 2017 I was reading 'The Last Act of Love',
published in 2015. A true story, it is about Cathy's struggle to
deal with the aftermath of terrible injuries sustained by her brother,
Matty (Matthew), when he was hit by a car in 1990. A year younger
than Cathy who was then 17, Matty was a tall teenager with a big
personality. However, the head injuries led to him being classified
as in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). Initially, however, Cathy
and her parents held great hope for his recovery.

As time went on and the quality of his life remained low, they came to
feel that he needed to be able to die and escape this suffering.
However, this required court action, following the precedent of Tony
Bland, who was in a PVS after injuries at the Hillsborough Stadium
football disaster in Sheffield. Feelings of guilt about taking this decision
were hard for both Cathy and her parents.

I was particularly interested in this story because 3rd year students and
I have regularly studied the topic of euthanasia in an English Communication
course. However, this is a very human individual story, not just of caring for Matty,
but also facing the challenges of continuing to run the family business
(a pub in Yorkshire), relating to other people's concern or lack of concern
for Matty and them, and dealing with issues like compensation in the
face of far from compassionate treatment from insurance companies.
Although it is not easy to read about Matty and the trauma that Cathy
faced, ultimately writing this book was the most successful way of coming
to terms with her experience and a valuable addition to the debate about
'mercy killing'.

Read about other books I have been reading starting here.