Two fine pieces appeared on this topic in today's NY Times:
Keeping a Promise When a Life Is Near Its End
By ELLEN D. FELD, M.D
A mother’s request to her daughter for “help” if something should happen to her is agonized over, accepted and eventually fulfilled.
Landscape Evolves for Assisted Suicide
by Jane Gross
"Washington joined Oregon last week as the second state where physicians are allowed to prescribe lethal doses of medication to terminally ill people who want to hasten their own deaths. But the question of whether doctors should help patients die is far more nuanced than it was 11 years ago, when the Oregon measure took effect."