My Mother's Physician-Assisted Suicide

In late January of 2011, my mother asked her internist if it would be OK for her to stop eating. The doctor said yes, whereupon she stopped eating and, for the most part, drinking. After two weeks, she died. With her doctorâ??s permission, she starved herself to death. Why?

My mother was not someone who gave up easily. She had chronic leukemia. She had a pacemaker. She had one kidney. At the age of 79 she had major abdominal surgery for peritoneal cancer, then underwent a second surgery to remove the adhesions that had formed. Radiation and chemotherapy followed. Her cancer went into remission.