Rhosty,

"a rare privilege and a pleasure!" for whom? Your mother?

I bet it wasn't much chop for granny!

Given that you are still alive, I suspect that your grandmother's prolapse could have been treated at the time, and I don't think many people wish to die because of arthritis.

There might be someone here with medical knowledge, but as far as I know this particular 'women's problem' causes discomfort and irritation rather than a death wish.

Don't get too blasé about death and new drugs, mate. There are things that will bring much more awful deaths than a bit of arthritis or a prolapsed womb. At the age of 85, your grandmother probably died a peaceful death of old age - pretty good for someone living in her era.

Rhrosty,

From your description, your grandma was a tough old lady who died of old age (very old for her era).

I know of women today who have prolapsed wombs (common 'female complaint') saying they will do something about it when they 'get a chance'. This problem is irritating and sometimes uncomfortable, but not something a woman would want to kill herself over. The same goes for arthritis.

Your grandmother's story has nothing to with euthanasia.

Don't be too blase about the reality of very unpleasant death, mate. There are things out there that kill slowly and with terrible pain. Much worse than arthritis and a common old prolapse.

And don't place to much on hope on new drugs. Morphine is still one of the best, and checking around web sites will reveal to you that palliative care specialists admit that some modern cancers and ailments do not respond to drugs or the pain they cause.

Everyone should have the right to choose how they die. It should have nothing to do with outdated, holier-than-thou laws still maintained by stupid politicians.

Valerie Yule.....A very well presented article.

Tally

If you create a living will, you can all but decide the manner of your passing, and there are a new suite of drugs sourced from marine sources, that are hundreds of times more powerful than morphine.

And heroin is more powerful than morphine and should be legalized for its efficacy, as should medicinal Marijuana.

The new marine sourced drugs, are said to be hundreds of times more addictive than morphine; not so much of a worry for the terminally ill, and they apparently don't suppress the life force the way morphine does.

For those worried about Alzheimer's and such, there appears to be some very promising possible breakthroughs on the horizon.

And for those who don't believe as I do, think, the ruling consensus once had us living on a flat 6,000 year old earth at the centre of the universe, which we BELIEVED revolved around us.

And we only believed that because we like many posting here, point blank refused to look at the contrary evidence!

Sure, by all means lets have a referendum, always providing the public are fully informed and are told what has transpired in both Belgium and Canada, where Euthanasia is legal and very much the slippery slope others warned about!

And there are a few doctors like a latecomer doctor death, more than willing to help you end it all, and on the flimsiest of evidence?

Which in the recent case of a tobacco addicted gold coast granny, was just internal and easily remedied internal adhesion, and not the return of cancer.

Similarly a 40 something WA man seeking how to advice, turned out to be only suffering from very curable depression.

There are lawyers who won't assist you get a divorce, or do anything for the guilty than plead extenuating circumstances, no matter how much the bullies try to force them to take a different stance!

And ditto doctors who won't give you an on demand abortion or euthanasia; and not on any particular religious scruples; but because some of us still have a moral compass that actually works!?
Rhrosty.