The death of the young Florida woman, after 15 years of being in a persistent vegetative state amid intense and continuous court battles, resulted in world-wide consideration about alternatives to a prolonged, difficult death. In addition, The Sea Inside (Mar Adentro) and Million Dollar Baby, award-winning films sympathetically dealing with the subject of two quadriplegics who wanted help to end their lives peacefully, provoked new interest in assisted dying. Steady work through legislatures and courts, plus tragic incidents of suicides and mercy killings, have created unusual activity in our movement in 2005.
