My parents are reaching the same point, only with positions swapped - my father with dementia, my mother in incessant hip and other pain that has no cure. They are both researching options, frustrated that the Canadian MAID program offers neither a dementia option nor a couples option.

And as their eldest, it is my duty of care to implement whatever choice they make. They took care of me in the beginning, I take care of them at the end. And choice is the most powerful gift I could possibly help them retain.

If your life is not your own, to do with as you please, then you are a slave. I'm happy for this couple, they seem like exactly the kind of people who get the most benefit out of this choice.

I read an interesting memoir about a couple who survived the holocaust together deciding to die together in the end. Written by their granddaughter.

An Exclusive Love by Johanna Adorján