If we as a country believe that people have personal autonomy over their own bodies, we should also recognize that it is everyone's independent choice as to when their life should end.

The headache in Athens was a stroke. The doctor who saw him didn't think he'd survive. Now he wishes he hadn't. What he really wants is to be allowed to die.

Hollywood is masterful at both humanizing and capturing our sympathies for brave revolutionaries, but Kevorkian is not one of those champions.

Pediatric aid-in-dying is coming out of the medical closet. In an era of parental rights and child welfare, maybe we are finally ready to grant suffering minors the right to die.

If one believes that the prevention of suffering may sometimes justify the withdrawal or withholding of care, then the very fact that Houben was conscious for twenty-three years might call more convincingly for such action.