Here's a case-in-point. About a year and a half ago, my mother was virtually "Written off" by the doctors and surgeons. She had suffered severe heart failure, had blood-clots on her lungs and was very weak ( the previous year, she has undergone serious surgery for cancer of the bowel and had barley survived). Me and my sisters were told that she had no chance, with the words (which are indelbly printed on my mind) "It could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be next week, but when it happens, the medical fraternity will not be surprised" A great way of breaking the news to the family, I don't think!

Nevertheless, my sister and I did our best to nurse my mother back to health - after they had written her off! After a while, I noticed that there was one thing that was missing from my mother that had always been there in the past. That was her will to live! My mother had always said that she wanted to be told everything that the doctors had told us, so, dutifully, we told her what the doctor had said. She lost the will to live and asked us to let her go if she ever became ill enough to go into hospital again. We were devastated. My mother was on oxygen at home and couldn't even stand - we thought she was dying.

Then, as a "last ditch attempt", something crossed my mind - namely that she had lost her self confidence. So, one day I simply said to my mam, " You've lost your confinence in yourself, and if you get that back, you will improve". (I also gave her a lot of other encouragements, in that we all loved her and didn't want to say 'goodbye' yet) To be honest, I didn't know what I was talking about, since I am not qualified in medical matters. But from that time onward, my mam started to improve, and she thanked me for giving her back the will to live.

Now, if we had followed her will (and they did have "DNR" written on her medical notes - without her or her next of kin's permission, until my sister raised holy hell about it), we would have let her go.

I can tell you now that my mother is alive and well (over a year and a half after they wrote her off) and, for a 75-year-old is very healthy and fit - she gets around fine and is very happy with her life.

Sooo... perhaps a person's "last wishes" are not always what is best for them or their family.

My point is, even though I said earlier in this thread that I would agree to it under certain circumstances, I would, personally find it virtually impossible to even let someone die without a fight, much less than to assist them in doing so.

John