âDEATH MAGNANIMOUS, my newest novel, is FREE at Bookfunnel as an advance reader copy. Â
Â
It follows flamboyant criminal defense attorney Charlie Chessman, faced with choosing to live -- or die -- after a private aircraft accident badly disfigures him.
A real-life story first inspired my interest.
Dax Cowart, a Texas-based criminal defense lawyer, was so badly disfigured in a natural gas explosion, he insisted on the right to end his life and the suffering he knew was ahead.
Â
From the moment of his injury in 1973, when he begged a passerby for a gun, to his death 46 years later, Dax never let up on the idea that he a right to choose death over life, an absolute right to end his own suffering, despite the life-saving medical establishment's arguments against him.
Â
In Death Magnanimous, Charlie Chessman faces the same choice, with the same obstinance, persistence, and passion Dax displayed that changed the course of medical ethics.
But Charlie's dilemmas are also different.
Fast forward to modern-day medicine at the fictional Jacobsen Burn Center in Pittsburgh. Pain control is light years better today than it was fifty years ago. So is reconstructive surgery, psychological care, and social acceptance.
While Dax had few viable alternatives to extreme suffering when he was treated, Charlie not only has alternatives, but eloquent, committed, modern-day role models who choose to live through some of the most terrifying injuries imaginable.
Â
What will Charlie Chessman choose? Is the life he wants to end instead the life he's been waiting to begin?
Advance Reader Remarks
"There are two choices at play in Death Magnanimous: the external---Can I kill myself?âand the internal---Will I kill myself? Ironically and beautifully, we see Charlie Chessman learn that even after tragedy, even after everything youâve known is flipped upside down, life will go on. We are the only ones who can decide if and how we want to be a part of it."
Â
Â
 _______________________________________
In this excerpt from Death Magnanimous, Charlie Chessman is on the road to Texas with a physician, Richard Fostris, he has hired to assist in his suicide. Texas has a new law, Dax's Law, that makes physician-assisted suicide in non-terminal cases legal. The law is fictional, but was what Dax Cowart fought his whole life to realize. Charlie is in a wheelchair now, with a catheter bag and limited mobility.
CHARLIE OPENED THE STAINLESS steel door to the extra-wide stall. The floor was wet. Toilet paper hung over the john. And only one grab bar, in a hard-to-reach place.
âYouâd think a state rest stop would know ADA design,â he said.
Fostris stood at the urinal. âWhatâs the issue?â
âNothing to steady myself. Well, nothing except the toilet paper holder and thisâI donât know what it is. This bar that needs a playmate. Or two.â
âHang on.â Fostris washed his hands, looked in. âHow are we going to do this?â
âWe?â
âI can pretend to be the missing bar. Or whatever.â
âI donâtââ
âSure you canât hold it?â
âNo!â Charlie wheeled forward. âFirst, it would probably help to unwind some T. P. One less thing to maneuver.â
Fostris returned with a wad of toilet paper from another stall. Two men came through the restroom door, almost together. Â
Charlie looked at the wet toilet seat. âThey need to put a sign in here,â he said. âPlease be seated.â He unrolled more toilet paper and wiped down the seat. ââPut the lid down,â my mom always said. âYou donât understand,â I always tried to tell her. Okay. All right.â
âWhere do you want me?â Fostris asked.
Charlie surveyed the stainless steel fixtures. Toilet paper holder here, grab bar there, heavy-duty plastic changing table, but too far away. âHere. Left side.
Hold your hands out like youâre throwing a cheerleader.â
âNever done that.â
Charlie imitated the cradle best he could. âIâll put my elbow in there, hand on the chair, then toilet paper holder, thenâwhy is this bar here?â
âIâll never look at those bars the same way again,â Fostris said.
âStay out of our stalls, fully abled,â Charlie said.
âThese stalls are usually the only clean ones.â Â Â
   Â
The last man snickered as he dried his hands.
Fostris formed the hand cradle, lowered it to Charlieâs level.
âWatch the bag,â Charlie said. âGotta keep it clean. Gotta keep itââ He pushed himself out of his chair, rested his elbow in Fostrisâ cradle, cautiously pivoted toward the seat. As Fostris reached for the chair control to move it back, he slipped.
Collided with Charlie.
âGoddamn it!â
âWhoa, sorry,â Fostris said.
Fostris got up, wrapped his arms around Charlieâs chest. Charlie lingered precariously between wheelchair and toilet.
âItâs okay. Okay,â Charlie panted. âHelpâget my pants down.â
Fostris tugged on his patient's pants until they slipped down.
âNowâhold me up. Hold me up!â Charlie said.
âCanâtânoââ
They slipped again on the wet floor. Both fell, Charlie backward, Fostris forward on Charlie with a gasp. Fostris scrambled to bring them both to their feet.Â
Â
But slipped again. Â
âGet up,â Charlie gasped. âGet off me.â
âI'm tryingâthere'sââ
âPiss all over the floor. I can't breathe!â
A man shut off the faucet and pressed back the stall door. âCan I . . . help?â
âNo!â
âNo, but thank you.â Fostris tried to stand back.
âDon't you dare. Don't you dare get up,â Charlie said.
Fostris slipped into Charlie.
âYou see? See what it's like? Two professional men swimming in piss in some filthy-ass can and I'm shitting all over myself. Who's gonna clean me up? Who's gonna wipe my ass? My dear wife?â Charlie was breathless, perspiring.
âI will,â Fostris said.
The doctor dropped the wad of toilet paper and mopped up the water with a free foot. He steadied himself, swung Charlie onto the commode.
âThis is how it really feels,â Charlie said. âLoneliness and dirtiness and helplessness and nobody gives a fuck until after awhile neither do you. I won't burden anyone with this.â Charlie grabbed Fostris' collar with his teeth.
âYouâre okay. Let go,â the doctor said.
Fostris tugged but Charlie wouldnât budge. The doctorâs face reddened and his jaw tightened.
âDon't you dare imply that I don't understand suffering,â the doctor said. âNow let me up or I'll break your jaw.â
Charlie opened his mouth. âYou mean what's left of it,â he said.
Â