Last week one of my patients with preterminal NYHA Stage IV cardiac failure looked into euthanasia.

He found predictably that it is now legal in my country but takes months and formidable legal resources to obtain it. Legalisation of euthanasia has, as everyone in the field warned multiple times, made it much harder to obtain and now requires a lot of time, effort and money.

The well meaning, naive proponents of legalisation of euthanasia have actually made things a lot harder for those who want it. The potential legal penalties for not getting the paperwork right, include loss of employment, deregistration and homicide charges. So now virtually no doctor wants to be involved for any amount of money.

So I told him how to contact the local palliative care unit when he decides to die, gave him documentation attesting to his preterminal , incurable status and taught him the magic words to almost instantly access that terminal, euthanising, life ending dose of mist. morphine...

"I have breathlessness and bone pain"

Also told him never again to say the word "euthanasia" to anyone, unless he wants a ride on the endless merry-go-round of legal paperwork.

Placing the hands in the abhaya mudra is optional...