Where is the mercy?

A letter in the AARP Bulletin for December 2005 reads as follows:

Assisted dying: mercy
I am close to 70. Many of us who have reached this age have stood by the bedside of many dying friends and family, some of whom have begged to die.
How do doctors stand that sight day after day, year after year?
Last year, a friend with terminal cancer tried to put a plastic bag over his head in order to cut off all oxygen. He also hid pain pills, prolonging his discomfort until he felt he had enough to end his agony. He no longer wanted to be nauseated, to suffer. And people say he had to continue to live like that? Why?
Where is the mercy?
No one but the patient should be able to make the choice whether to stay or to go at their own time.
We treat our sick animals better than we do our terminally ill patients.
----- Eileen Schenck, Las Vegas, Nevada

Recommend reading "Final Exit, The Practicalities of
Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying" by
Derek Humphry.