One of my favorite bloggers, x4mr, (Sustainability, Equity, Development) has announced the death by suicide of British conductor Edward Downes and his wife. Downes, 85, and his terminally ill wife, 74, died at a clinic run by Dignitas, the Swiss organization that operates a specialist euthanasia service.

x4mr reports: “They were assisted in a comfortable room with beds close together allowing them to hold hands as they peacefully lost consciousness after taking a fatal dose of barbiturates under medical supervision.”

Such a gracious death should be available to us all when we find the burdens of age or sickness beyond our ability to endure.

More details of the Downes’ death here. Read about Dignitas here.

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