A renowned 104-year-old Australian scientist died Thursday, ending his life in a medically assisted suicide at a Swiss clinic.

David Goodall, who is not terminally ill, happily sang a few bars of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at a news conference Wednesday on the eve of his assisted suicide in Basel. He told reporters that he was “happy to have the chance tomorrow to end it."

"At my age, and even at rather less than my age, one wants to be free to choose the death and when the death is the appropriate time,” Goodall said. “My abilities have been declining over the past year or two, and my eyesight for the past five or six years, and I no longer want to continue life."

Goodall, who wore a shirt that read “Ageing Disgracefully,” said he has considered using lethal injection, but that he’ll defer to doctors on the method.

Euthanasia is currently banned in Australia where the scientist lived, which prompted the scientist’s trek to Switzerland last week.

Swiss law currently allows assisted suicide for anyone who acknowledges in writing that they are taking their lives willingly — without being forced. The decades-old legislation that authorized the practice states that people who help others to die cannot do so for "selfish" reasons.

Full Story here: http://castgist.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=25787

Hmmm!


Assisted suicide clinic?

When you think you have seen it all comes another.

It's crazy to even think he needs to die when it's not his time yet. Suicide is suicide regardless.