The hardest and most personal story that Deprez has ever written by a long shot, “How I Helped My Dad Die” is a personal meditation on love and loss and an analysis of health policy and end-of-life medical care. It about her dad’s insistence that his death, like his life, was his to control after ALS robbed him of independence and freedom; about the bigger societal fight to retain control and autonomy as death nears; and about dying gracefully amid the chaos of Covid-19.
“A Fight to Die” dives deeper into the history and complexities of medical-aid-in-dying laws, America’s conflicted relationship with euthanasia, and debates about what we owe people at end of life. It’s anchored by the story of Sandy Morris, the patient plaintiff in a lawsuit that seeks to expand California’s aid-in-dying law. The story turned more personal than initially conceived when Deprez’s reporting revealed revelations about the timing of her father’s death.