Dear Mblase,
I am terribly sorry for your loss and want to be as respectful as possible with this reply but I believe you misunderstood the author which appears to have struck you deeply.
From what I have read above, I have interpreted the author's intention as being one to shed some light into some good reasons for a law change. And while I believe this could have been worded in a better way; I hope to help clarify his intentions as is has came across to me.
To do that I have to separate two very important points that cause most people to commit suicide. (It is important that I also state not all people have these reasons, but MOST do.)
The first reason is emotional pain or psychological illness that causes emotional pain, and the second reason is physical pain, illness, or debilitation.
This first reason is often a sign, need, and in many cases a cry for help with emotional pain and baggage that they do not have the coping mechanisms in place to handle and can be caused by a medical condition or psychological condition which can be managed to the point of the person wanting to continue life and treated in many many cases to be completely cured from in time.
The second reason for wanting to commit suicide is usually when all the help a person can get has been gotten and there is literally nothing else anyone can do for the person or when the diagnoses has a very very low chance of success and to even get that very very low chance of success will mean many horrible treatments that if administered to a healthy person would be inhumane.
I believe it was the author's intent to shed light on the need for a law change for the people in the second category for a variety of reasons.
First, no where in his document did he mention emotional or depression related reason.
Second, He did, however, mention many times an incurable, often debilitating, illness that doesn't just strip a person of their dignities but also their memories slowly over time. Though I must point out that though, as of current, there are now treatments which can now greatly slow it's progression, there is still no cure for this disease.
And lastly, he makes a point of directly siting one case where a lady with this illness decided on suicide while she still had her memories and dignities intact, even though the people around her (like the doctor who testified) were quick to state that she still had a few years left before she'd have progressed past the point of being able to make decisions for herself (Implied by the comment in the document by the doctor of her having "three or four more years of "normal" life ahead of her").
It is sad, but many opponents to assisted suicide are people who have either overcome a specific illness that many others fail to overcome, often think of those with depression as being the reason behind the law change, have hope beyond hope or are in denial that the person wanting suicide will not survive, or lastly have unwaivering faith (which can be a good thing, but also a bad thing if it leads to the suffering of others) in their particular religion, deity, or the abilities and hope of science, scientists, doctors, hospitals, etc.
What many of the survivors of diseases are forgetting, is the fact that not all people will be the lucky ones to survive their illness nor do they want to try to, because everyone has different pain tolerances and thresholds, is different, and some know their limits while others do not know what they're capable of handling.
In the cases of people thinking that depression is one of the reasons for many people wanting the law change, these people often don't realize that in most cases this is not why people want the law change at all, even people recovering from or fully healed from depression will often be the first to admit that this is not the reason the laws should be changed.
As far as those in denial of their loved one's illness actually killing their loved ones, this is often a part of the grief they're already starting to deal with.
And lastly, in the cases of those with unwaivering faith in (Insert faith, science, doctor, etc. here) a lot of times these people either aren't realizing, accepting, or in some cases purposely avoiding, the fact that their loved ones may not believe as they do, as well as others may not believe as they do and that others may be more grounded in the realities of their own illnesses or beliefs, and in many cases know instinctively that they will not survive their illnesses.
Many people don't believe a person can instinctively know if they will survive their illness but it happens all throughout every species on the planet and even some breads of animals will leave or "run away" from their owners, herds, or packs to die when they know instinctively that they aren't going to live much longer.
And if you ask many disease survivors about their bout with their particular disease many of them will tell you that they just knew deep down instinctively that this disease was not going to beat them and that they were going to live. So it's not hard to make the jump that just as many people with the same diseases know that they're not going to live.
The main thing with assisted suicide for people with these types of illnesses, however, is that usually by the time the person has decided they want to commit suicide they either have a very small chance of survival or have often exhausted most or all of their available treatments and are only holding on for family and friends or because they physically can not move or help themselves to accomplish that which they ask to be helped with which is to die.
I think it was the author's intent to show that these people in the second category have the right to have a dignified death.
In many people's opinions there is little, if any, dignity in committing suicide for such a reason as it would just be "simpler to end it" as a way of not addressing the underlying reasons of an illness like depression. In fact, many many people who have attempted suicide and gotten help after failing to kill themselves likewise have a similar or the same opinion about suicide for reasons like this because the act of suicide for reasons of ending mostly treatable and often curable illnesses like depression is very destructive and hurtful to those around them.
Just so you know I am one of these people who has likewise tried to commit suicide due to depression but I do not deem it an act worthy of changing the current laws, nor do I see any dignity in the act of suicide due to depression.
But the main reason the law changes are sought after in many many cases by so many people is that many of them believe that a person dieing a slow painful death that would end in them needing to have someone there to wipe the drool or vomit from their mouths when they throw up due to lack of motor function, and needing to have someone dress them and diaper them and wipe their bottoms when they can't control their bowels, the whole time of which they will often be in excruciating pain while being moved, should have the right to die before then.
Because, honestly, I think most people would agree that illness that often result in this kind of scenario does strip a person of any and all dignity that they ever had and is inhumane to tell anyone that they've no right to stop this kind of fate.
It's not only embarrassing, painful, hurtful, and undignifying for the person with the illness but I believe the author's point was to show that it's also selfish and wrong of those of us not in that position of being the one with the illness to force them to live until the illness kills them just so we can have a clean consciousness and time to come to terms with the loss.
I remember watching my aunt slowly die of esophageal cancer and go through the pain of treatments and the slow death to follow when the treatments failed.
But what stuck out most in my mind was watching her cry and beg in the four months before she finally passed away for someone, anyone, to help her go because of the pain. The doctors said no, my family would get upset when asked by her and would often leave the room because of wanting to help but not wanting to loose her or commit a crime and yet being stuck feeling like they weren't doing enough for her, and she was too weak to do anything by herself at that point being bed ridden.
I often was tempted to help her myself but being only twelve and being told if I did I would go to jail for a very long time scared me as much as hurt me as I felt like I was bound and hopelessly stuck. So likewise I see this side of the issue as well.
So, in conclusion, I hope this helps shed some light on both sides of this issue and raises awareness on the difference between assisted suicide for untreatable disease and/or treatments that are often worse than the diseases themselves being a right reason for a law change to allow assisted suicide, and, likewise, suicide from emotional pain in most cases (mainly depression which is very treatable in most cases) as being a wrong reason for it.
I know this reply may spark some debates or even some hateful replies of their own from other people, but I mainly hoped to let you know that I hear your pain Mblase and I hope this gives you a bit of clarity on why others are pushing for new laws allowing assisted suicide.
I post this with the utmost respect for your pain and your loss and hope that you heal from the terrible clutches of grief as time moves forward.
Yours,
Beenthere.