I’m going to say at the outset, I’m a firm believer in a terminally ill person’s right to die with dignity. My personal standard is that the quality of life will have deteriorated to a point that the person is unlikely to enjoy any improvement in what will be an inevitable death. There is room to argue about what defines ‘quality of life’, that for the most part would have to be determined by the person suffering through the illness.

A Vancouver woman, who is otherwise in good health, wants to die alongside her husband. She says that her life would be unliveable without her husband. Her husband is dying from heart disease. I’ve been down that particular path, the spouse of a man dying of heart disease. Twenty years ago in August my husband succumbed. Read the rest of this entry »