What do you think about assisted or legal suicide? Should it be allowed? What would you want to see happen in the following cases?

James is the patient. A devout Catholic, James always said that life was precious and something in God’s control. However, James is now in a coma that doctors are 90 percent sure is irreversible. He suffered for several years with a painful form of cancer that has now invaded his brain. His family has seen him suffer terribly, and they want to let him die now.

Barbara is the patient. This 43-year-old woman suffered massive brain damage in a car accident, and doctors are 90 percent sure it is irreversible. She is unaware of her surroundings, but may live for many years. The family’s savings have already been used up to provide her with care; three children who were planning to attend college have had to forego their education and take jobs. Her family wants her to be allowed to die now. Verna is the patient. She is 77 years old. She has always said she wanted to die if she were ever a burden to others. She has Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive and incurable brain disorder in which memory and personality gradually erode. It is a terminal illness, but death usually occurs three to five years after diagnosis.

Verna is diagnosed a year later and becomes unable to remember where she is or to whom she is speaking. Her family wants her to be allowed to die to avoid becoming the burden she feared she would become.