Diane phoned all her friends to ask them to visit her and say their good byes. She came to my office one last time it was clear the she knew what she was doing, that she was sad and frightened to be leaving, but that she would be even more terrified to stay and suffer(114) Quill enforced.A couple days later Dianes husband phoned me and said Diane passed away. She told her son and husband goodbye and leave her alone, an hour later she was dead lying in her favorite blanket. Quill called the medical examiner and told him Diane died of acute leukemia (114). Quill indicates that I said acute leukemia to protect all of us, to protect Diane from invasion into her past and her body, and to continue to shield society for the knowledge of the degree of suffering that people often undergo in the process of dying(115).Quill concludes by praising that:Diane taught me about the range of help I can provide if I know people well and if I allow them to say what they really wantabout life, death, and honesty and about taking charge and facing tragedy squarely when it strikesthat I can take small risks for people that I really know and care about. Although I did not assist her in suicide directly, I helped indirectly to make it possible, successful, and relatively painless. Although I know we have measures to help control pain and lessen suffering, to think that people do not suffer in the process of dying is an illusion (115).Betty Rollin, an employee at NBC News, wrote Last Wish, a book about her mothers death, which this article goes back and tells the story of how she help assist-suicide upon her mother. Next to the happiness of my children, I want to die more than anything else in the world my mothers words [spoke] to me one late fall afternoon to convince me that she really meant it: She wanted to die, and would I please help(241). Rollin reveals that [they] did research [and] found out what it would take for her to die safely (241). Rol...
