My mother begged doctors to end her life. She was beyond the physical ability to swallow enough of the weak morphine pills she had around her. When she knew she was dying I promised to make sure she could go at a time of her choosing, but it was impossible. I couldn't help.

Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee

Ability Around Beyond Choosing Could Doctors Dying End Enough Go Had Help Her Impossible Knew Life Make Morphine Mother Physical Pills Promised She Sure Swallow Time Weak

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People want the right to die at a time of their own choosing. Too many families have watched helplessly as a relative dies slowly, longing for death.

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Could a government dare to set out with happiness as its goal? Now that there are accepted scientific proofs, it would be easy to audit the progress of national happiness annually, just as we monitor money and GDP.

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How do you make any sense of history, art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world's main religions?

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