TO DIE OR NOT - THAT IS THE QUESTION.

I am in need of comfort activity and comfort food. Why? There have been two severely disabled men, with conditions known as Locked In Syndrome, which, looks like it does what it says. I have been trying to imagine what that might feel like. I cannot tolerate the thought of what my life could become if it happened to me. If I was lucky, my eyes might communicate, would I be left with a finger working perhaps...who knows. Who would understand my communication?

Tony Nicklinson who died last weekend, having had any remaining stuffing knocked out of him by the High Courts, was asking for the right to be allowed to opt for euthanasia; the request was refused. The man was in a wheel chair, no independent physical ability; he had a marvellous wife who could generate his communications to the world at large. How likely would it have been that anyone else could have fulfilled this vital task for Tony? In the end, he opted for starvation. He had no physical resources to resist pneumonia, and died. The family are now requiring a period of privacy and peace.

We hear that there is another locked in syndrome case where euthanasia is being sought, with the agreement of the legal system of the U.K. in order to protect loved ones and the medical profession from any litigation for formally assisting someone to die.