Starving to death or dying of thirst is a terrible way to die. Imagine the uproar from the PETA types if vets started doing that to sick animals. Yet, we do that to humans. I've talked at length to a Buchenwald survivor who described what it was like to starve almost to death. It was an experience terrible beyond words.

There are a lot of people who have no hope for recovery. One of my best frieds has MS. Over the past 10 years, I've watched him deterioriate terribly. Barring a miracle, there is no hope for him ever recovering. He was recently hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism and almost died. He's quadraplegic with no hope of recovery - should we kill him?

I've heard several advocates for the severely handicapped who are terrified by the idea that someone will one day decide for them that their lives are no longer worth living. Human euthanisa, especially involuntary, is a terrible thing virtually indistinguishable from murder. This is already happening in at least one European country.

It's one thing for me and my wife to tell our family that we don't want any heroic measures to be taken should we fall into a coma. It's another thing for someone to make that decision for us, especially if they have something to gain as this poor woman's husband does.