Edward Brecher; Wrote ‘Opting for Suicide’

Edward M. Brecher, 77, a writer who argued in favor of the right to end one’s life at a time and in a manner of one’s own choosing. Brecher wrote “Opting for Suicide” for The New York Times Magazine in 1979 after he had contracted cancer of the colon the previous year. He also was the author of numerous books and articles on medical, scientific and social subjects. For much of his long writing career, Brecher collaborated on books and articles with his wife, Ruth Ernestine Cook Brecher, who died in 1966. They received the Albert Lasker Award for medical journalism in 1963. The couple wrote “An Analysis of Human Sexual Response,” a 1966 version for the general public of Masters and Johnson’s “Human Sexual Response.” Among his later works were “The Sex Researchers,” “Licit and Illicit Drugs” and “Love, Sex and Aging.” In Cornwall, Conn., on Saturday, an apparent suicide.