Morgentaler: A Difficult Hero

morgentalerheroby Catherine Dunphy

Biography (Canada), 474 pages
Publisher: Random House Canada, Jan. 1, 1997
ISBN-10: 0394223918
ISBN-13: 978-0394223919
Order: Amazon.com

From Barnes & Noble: Here is the definitive biography of one of Canada’s most controversial personalities. Dr. Henry Morgentaler is the unlikely hero at the center of Canada’s most divisive issue—the right to legal and medically safe abortion—and a man of intense contradiction. He is a champion of women, a humanist, and a caring, compassionate doctor, beloved by patients from all social strata. Yet his relationships with friends, family, and lovers over the years have been troubled. Morgentaler is no easy hero, but he is an intriguing subject.

This book is the first to tell his story completely, in all its complexity. It traces the life of a man forced to face death at an early age in Auschwitz, a man who has chosen to live as a perpetual and deliberate outsider, and a man who may not himself understand why he feels he must go to battle for an issue that few Canadians are comfortable with. Morgentaler paints a fascinating portrait of a heroic Canadian figure, complex in his motivations, loved and hated for his central role in the country’s most dangerous debate.