You started talking about "assisted" suicide. Of course anyone has a right to kill themselves, if they choose. If someone is determined to commit suicide, there is not a whole lot that can be done to stop them. Lots of people have successfully committed suicide inside of hospitals, jails and prisons . . . even though there was staff in those places with the responsibility to try and stop them.

But just because you have the right to kill yourself - which I agree you do - that doesn't mean anyone else on this earth should be obligated to help you. It's up to them. If someone does want to help you, it makes perfect sense for the law to consider that an act of murder may have occurred. There's a lot of people who have others close to them that wish they were dead. Plenty of people have spouses, children, grandchildren and business partners who'ld love to see them out of the way. So anyone who helps someone else to die deserves to be regarded with some suspicion. Otherwise, a lot of people would be helped on their way to the Great Beyond, whether they want to go there or not. A lot of people could be intimidated into saying they want to make their exit, even though they might not truly feel that way in their hearts.

I'm very sorry for what your father is going through. It's an awful disease that he has. And it's awful for his family - for you - to have to see him deteriorate and endure mental, as well as physical misery. To some extent, your father is taking out his anger on you. He could have already just killed himself, if he wanted to. He's ambivalent, as most persons in his situation are.

He wants you to share his suffering, even though that won't make his suffering less. What he's doing is venting his anger by threatening you. Sick people can be forgiven for doing that when they feel very stressed. But most if us are going to eventually face severe physical deterioration. We don't have the right to use that as an excuse to try and create a miserable, gloomy atmoshere for everyone around us. To some extent, your father is playing you.

Most terminally ill people who want to die are really suffering from loneliness, due to not having satisfying emotional involvement with people whom they love that love them. Some people won't let themselves be loved. People have a way of creating their own hell.

l would not judge anyone who chooses suicide and successfully executes it. But there is a limit to how much I'ld be willing to listen to someone whining at me about how they hate living and intend to kill themselves.