A dear friend of mine developed ALS (think Stephen Hawking). I'll call him B. In the early stages, I was speaking with my friend and his wife. He said that when there was no more quality of life, he would want to die.

"What is no quality of life?" I asked.

"When I can no longer tell my wife I love her."

He was afraid he would not be able to kill himself. His wife told me that she would not be able to do whatever was necessary. I promised him I would if no one else would.

Gradually he lost all ability to move and speak. (We were writing a book together, but managed to finish it telepathically it seems.) Later, B was given a communication device. He could still move his head from side to side. Moving his head would tap a device that moved a cursor across a screen to select letters. The letters spelled out words. The machine could speak the words.

Eventually he couldn't even do this. When the time came, B somehow let his wife know that he wanted to end it. I think the signal involved blinking. He could still blink. She called their son in the middle of the day. He left work and went right over.

They told the doctors he died naturally.

How can anyone doubt that this was the right thing to do?