Quote of the day:

I was once asked by a right-wing American magazine: should any restrictions be placed on euthanasia generally? If I am depressed, do I qualify? If an elderly woman's husband dies and she says she no longer has anything to live for, would you help her kill herself? Who qualifies? Who decides if a life is worth living?

My response was that I do not believe that telling people they have a right to life while denying them the means, manner or information necessary for them to give this life away has any ethical consistency.

So all people qualify, not just those with the training, knowledge or resources to find out how to "give away" their life. This includes the depressed, the elderly bereaved, [and] the troubled teen. If we are to remain consistent and we believe that the individual has the right to dispose of their life, we should not erect artificial barriers in the way of sub-groups who don't meet our criteria.

(an excerpt from "Killing Me Softly" by Philip Nitschke and Fiona Stewart)