Everyone should have the right to a dignified death
Dr Zareer Masani
Reprinted from Open magazine, November 3, 2023, with permission from the author and the publisher. The text is slightly edited for stylistic purposes.
The Swiss clinic in Basel, Pegasos, calls it Voluntary Assisted Dying, VAD for short. I booked mine some months ago. As the date approached, I had second thoughts, triggered partly by remonstrations from friends, but more by the new possibility of a medical cure for my severe breathlessness. As a dyed-in-the-wool atheist, I have no fear of the afterlife, or more positive expectations either. Just the deeply entrenched evolutionary survival gene, with which we are all programed. Preparing......