A chosen death

by Lonny Shavelson

Renee was thirty-six when a CAT scan showed cancer in her brain. She tried everything, including an experimental medical program in Sweden. "Plan A," she said, "is to fight like hell to live. Plan B is my suicide, if Plan A fails and the suffering becomes intolerable." Pierre, a circus trapeze artist with AIDS, planned to commit suicide but first had to face the consequences of how his decision would affect his seven-year-old daughter. Gene, partially paralyzed by a stroke and fearful of complete debilitation, failed at two suicide attempts and then called the Hemlock Society to solicit their help in his next attempt to die. Kelly, mute and completely paralyzed since a childhood accident, decided it was time to "move to another existence," but his physical inability to kill himself precipitated tormented soul-searching for his family. Mary, a mystery writer dying of breast cancer, discovered that finding ways to control the final anguish of her death, while also taking into account her