The Illusions of a Good Death

“Last Night” explores the morality and ethics of euthanasia, a word derived from the Greek terms for eu (good) and thanatos (death). Marit wants to die with dignity. Exhausted by advanced cancer, she moves in her final arrangements towards a deeper engagement with the world. As she prepares herself for the evening, she recalls with fondness the gentle moments and quiet beauty in the everyday world in which she has lived. She remembers, for instance, the wonders of watching “the swirling storms of long-ago winters” and of “the lamplight in which her mother was holding out a wrist, trying to fasten a bracelet.” As her last night unfolds, Marit begins, too, to recognize similar small wonders in a world that she has until now taken for granted; she comes to appreciate deeply, for instance, the taste of...