Anyone who has watched a loved one suffer from a terminal disease or unrecoverable injury for any length of time will tell you after death, "It was time to let her go," or "At least he's not in pain anymore" or "She suffered terribly, for too long." In these instances, death is seen as a blessing, or deliverance. If death is inevitable, and the only obstacle between the patient and death is pain, suffering, and the terrible indignities of being unable to care for one's own body, then assisted suicide becomes a gentle and dignifying option for patients and their families. Terminally ill or irrevocably injured patients should have the right to legally choose assisted suicide.
             Assisted suicide is defined as the act of killing oneself intentionally with the assistance of another who provides the means, the knowledge, or both. Examples of assisted suicide include the following:
             • A physician gives the patient information about how to take a lethal dose of a drug and writes a prescription for the drug knowing that it is the intention of the patient to kill oneself with the drug. The patient takes the lethal dose and dies as a result.
             • A friend of a partially-paralyzed woman goes to the pharmacy to get a prescription for barbiturates filled, brings them to her, pours them into her hand, and brings her a drink to wash down the pills. The woman takes the pills with the drink and dies as a result.
             The necessary and sufficient elements of assisted suicide are that the patient is the agent of death but death results from the assistance supplied by another person. Physician-assisted suicide is a doctor supplying a death-causing means, but the patient performs the act that brings about death.
             Euthanasia, refusal of treatment, or treatment aimed at the alleviation of suffering that may shorten life are not considered assisted suicide. Euthanasia is not a form of assisted suicide bec...