I think there is a lot more to worry about than whether someone who has a terminal illness with great pain is making the right or wrong choice about when to die.

It is their issue. It should be their decision.

If crazy religious beliefs turn out to be true, and suicide turns out to be a punishable sin (by God); well, that unlikely risk belongs only to the person making the decision.

When its my time, I hope I have that choice.

The Inuit (for one) during the old days would let their older members die from the elements because when these older members couldn't take care of themselves anymore they were deemed an danger to the society because other members would have to expend time, food, and power when it was dangerous to do so (extreme northern hemisphere) to keep them alive.

So, they would take these members out to ice floes and let them float away to die from the elements.

These older members weren't dragged out of their Igloos kicking and screaming- they came out willingly, knowing that it was the way of life for them for countless centuries.

Why don't we have that same mindset when it comes to members of our society who are suffering with no prospect for recovery, and especially these who wish to die?

Why should we in the 'First world' force them to accept the unproven Catholic belief that those who end their own lives go to Hell and therefore we must take it upon ourselves to make sure they die slow deaths so they don't go to Hell, and that if we don't try to 'heal' them we're no better than animals?

That is a great point. Death is at least as "normal" as is birth. Why do we go to ridiculous lengths sometimes to prevent it when even the person no longer wants to live?

And why is it so astonishing that someone would actually want to die when their time has come. Why is it so hard to imagine that a person could actually be at peace with their own death, and welcome it?

I will never forget my father virtually pleading "Why can't I die?" when he had been ill for a long time with emphysema and was reduced to a skeleton of himself. Thankfully he had a clear mind to the end.

I know doctors and society want to do the right thing, because the risk of abuse is there. I just wish that there was room made in laws to accommodate individuality and personal preference instead of banging every issue with the same sledgehammer.