I remember seeing on Sky Real Lives a truly heartbreaking film that included the harrowing moment a retired university professor died in an 'assisted suicide'.

Craig Ewert, 59, was filmed turning off his ventilator and taking a lethal dose of drugs washed down with apple juice. Mr Ewart paid Dignitas, a clinic in Switzerland that assits people to end their lives, £3000 for his assisted suicide.

Just minutes before his death, Mary, his wife of 37 years asks him: 'Can I give you a big kiss?' She adds: 'I love you sweetheart so much. Have a safe journey and see you some time.'

Pretty heavy stuff, I am sure you will agree and a storm blew up over the very fact that this was shown on TV at all. What do you think? Are there fates worth than death, so that death is longed for rather than dreaded? I am sure that we all agree that there are. But is it ever right to take your own life? Again opinion is divided. We all the know the old one about ‘not letting an animal suffer that way’ in favour of letting people die with dignity and in their own time and before every waking moment becomes intolerable, not only for them but for the people who love them.

I for one am glad that there exists, somewhere, a way out, a chance to take control of our life and death and hope that for the sake of my family, if I ever needed to, I would have the courage to use it. I can imagine nothing worse than years watching a loved one die by degrees or to die that way myself.
Hard though it was to watch, maybe this will be what we all need to see, and take on board, we are going to die, somewhere, somehow, one day. Let’s get this taboo out in the open.