Weems' reply includes: "I would rather my chilluns and granchilluns not have to be held back by my needs. It's a matter of what can I do when I can no longer contribute. When is it time? And can I choose it? Will I have the foresight to choose it just before I no longer have the ability?"

If you would consider voluntarily ending your life, what would your criteria include?

Mom's had friends who chose what she calls "self check-out". In several cases, a gentle end, for one, a violent method that horrifed both his wife and all residents of the 'home'. My Dad asked my brother (also an MD) to write a 'scrip; he said no. Dad died by the inch.

This excerpt from William Carlos Williams' "The Last Worlds of My English Grandmother" says it all for me.