The right to die

TERRIFYING though the thought of death may be, for many people there is a greater fear: that one's final months or years may be spent in a nightmare of confusion, pain and helplessness. It is a prospect that medical technology has made real for many in the rich West. Sustaining life in a body that is irreversibly incapacitated, and perhaps without a mind, is no longer a "miracle" but a routine procedure. Thanks to different sorts of medical advance, fewer people are dying young from heart attacks, which kill quickly, and more in old age from wasting sicknesses such as cancer. Faced with such an end, some people long for death, and beg the help they need to bring it on. Opinion polls in Europe and America find consistent majorities in support of assisted suicide and euthanasia. How, if at all, should governments respond?