Daniel Zimberoff Appeared on Positive Aging Webcast to Discuss “Wingman”

On February 25th, coincidentally my father’s birth date, I appeared on Positive Aging’s webcast where founder and host Steve Gurney and I shared a candid and personal conversation touching on many facets of dying with dignity and end of life choice. We delved into my father’s decade-long battle with Parkinson’s, the emotional rollercoaster of family support, the final journey to Switzerland, and the impetus behind my memoir, Wingman: Escorting My Father to a Death with Dignity.

The discussion widened to a broader conversation involving autonomy, grief, support, and breaking the taboo surrounding death. I was delighted when webcast attendee Michelle Witte, Executive Director of the Final Exit Network spontaneously joined the conversation and added valuable comments and insights into end of life choices.

I am greatly appreciative that Steve invited me as a guest and enabled me to share my father’s journey and our story with his community. Here is a link to the full interview.

We often frame end-of-life choice as a legal, religious, or political debate. Less often do we talk about its emotional reality. Families facing prolonged suffering live inside a volatile mix of love and guilt, fear and loyalty, compassion and doubt. Wingman offers a lens for understanding dignity, decline, autonomy, and choice. It is meant as a reflection tool for anyone navigating aging parents, chronic illness, or the quiet terror of watching someone they love slip away.

At the heart of such decisions is a simple, human desire: to leave this world with love, grace, and dignity. It is a right all of us should be allowed to claim.