Absolutely so! Thank you, David!

Animals may not be people, in your mind, but people certainly are animals.
Homo Sapiens.
Just another species of animal.
The only species destroying its own environment for its own personal gratification.

The fact that 80% of people agree we should have the right to end our lives when we decide enough is enough yet we can't is a clear indictment of our so-called democracy which is supposed to be based on human rights.

And who says we can't? Politicians, religiously-deranged clerics, doctors who fear being sued, and lawyers!

To hell with them, I say. Let them mind their own business and stop interfering in the lives of others.

Dear oh dear,

Yet again that slide from suicide - which I fully support the decriminalisation of - to 'assisted suicide' (which could so easily be actual murder, particularly if family and other interested parties are involved). Wait for the slide into 'helping Alzheimer's patients die a dignified death'.

Yes, doctors and nurses in palliative care can increase the level of morphine to alleviate pain and distress of patients in their last hours, I can support that. But most certainly NOT family members or anybody who may stand to gain financially from a death.

Arm's-length suicide, with nobody else within cooee, should be an option and, in fact, it always is: we can swim out to sea or submerge ourselves in a bath, and nobody else has to be involved. We can OD on sleeping pills, use a plastic bag, drop off a cliff or step out in front of a bus, it depends on how clean or messy one wants to go. But the bottom line is that it has to be the individual's decision and action alone.

Preferably after utilising effective counselling services, that is. We each have only one life, and that's it: Poof ! Gone. Believers may make light of bringing a life to an end but they shouldn't kid themselves.

Joe

Joe, we all have one life and one death.

My mother died from bowel cancer many year ago. Whether or not she was vomiting up feces I do not know but by the time the medical profession had finished with her she was a drug addict and had swollen to twice her size. She died a hideous death.

I do not want such a death imposed upon me by authoritative 'others'.

I also do not want to swim our to sea because my fear of sharks is strong and being crushed under a bus seems rather grotesque.

What I want is a handful of life-ending pills which, surrounded by those I love, I can swallow with a glass of my favorite wine then go to sleep and not wake up again.

Surely that is not too much to ask for!

David G you are so correct.