14 Apr 2009 Canadian fights to die with husband

Assisted Suicide; Swiss group seeks right to grant wish of healthy people By Tom Blackwell, National Post, Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The head of a controversial assisted-suicide group in Switzerland says he will seek legal permission to help a Canadian woman and other healthy people like her kill themselves, raising startling new issues in the emotional debate over euthanasia.

Betty Coumbias, an elderly Vancouver resident, has indicated she wants to die alongside her husband, George, who suffers from heart disease. Involving healthy individuals would dramatically extend the boundaries of assisted suicide, usually thought of as a way for the terminally ill to avoid an otherwise painful, uncomfortable death. [Keep reading this article here.]