Euthansia

[Malacasta]

I know it's very problematic, but I challenge anyone to read this article and not be moved.

Frightened of a slow, painful death from a total bowel obstruction, this softly spoken Melbourne writer wanted her life to end peacefully and on her own terms.

It wasn't to be. She regretfully turned away from her loved ones and spent her final weeks searching for information about euthanasia and a dose of the lethal drug Nembutal. Her final hours were robbed of the dignity she had wanted as she died vomiting the content of her bowels.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/th...0912-4fi2.html

Flowers' quest dominated her dying days, and her frustration at Australia's current legal situation led her to film a passionate appeal to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

"I don't believe in stoicism. I freely admit to not being a brave soul who grins and bears the pain and soldiers on," she says in the video, filmed during one of her last day trips from her hospice bed.

"I deeply admire people who rise above the adversity and their suffering. But I haven't grown from my illness or become a better person from its torments. All I want after 16 years of painful Crohn's disease and now cancer is to die a pain-free peaceful death.

"Because euthanasia was banned in Australia I am denied this right …

Darion's Note: Edited to correct spelling in topic.