I don't know a whole lot about this lady you're talking about, but I do have a lot of experience with people dying. I hope you don't mind if I put in my two-cents worth.

There was a study recently done on people who starve themselves, instead of participating in physician-assisted suicide.

These were people who were terminally ill and ready to go. Surprisingly enough, they had extremely peaceful and good deaths compared to people who passed in other ways.

I'm an ICU nurse, so I've seen many, many people die. I've watched people die from lack of food and water, because they refused to eat and refused a feeding tube. They just sort of gradually slipped away and didn't appear to suffer.

There is a law in medicine which says that we can give as much anesthetic as is necessary to relieve a person's suffering, even if it hastens the person's death. For example, if a person is dying from lung problems, we can give enough morphine to ease their respirations so they don't feel like they're suffocating. The morphine reduces their desire to breathe and theoretically can cause them to die. That's perfectly legal. So physician and nurse assisted suicide actually occurs quite regularly and is legal.

Anyway - the people I've seen die through anesthetics haven't died any more peacefully than the people I've seen starve themselves to death, although I know that sounds unlikely.

It's not like it is with you and I - we have such a strong desire to live, and we have healthy bodies with normal appetites. If you don't have a strong appetite then starving is not bad at all, from what I've seen. I fully intend to go that way if I'm ill for a long time before I die.