Sean Davison, a professor of science at the University of the Western Cape, made headlines when he was arrested in New Zealand for matricide. The story that emerged – how he helped his ailing mother in Dunedin to die – is the subject of his affecting book Before We Say Goodbye.
This second book, After We Said Goodbye, takes up the story from there: his arrest, trial and sentencing to 5 months of house arrest. The dramatic events that followed after this soft-spoken, unassuming man took the most fateful decision of his life, tore open family rifts and posed fundamental questions about life and about his choices.
With unwavering frankness, Davison faces his demons: Should he have done what he did? Ought he to have exposed his family? Was it the right thing to self-sensor his book and conceal the fact that he had administered the morphine? And how should he come to terms with his sibling who had leaked the uncensored manuscript that lead to his arrest?
It is estimated that huge numbers of people die through assisted suicide, and Davison has become a vocal activist for the right to die in dignity.
