My wife works for a colon and rectal surgery practice. She came home and told me about a patient she has and it sparked an interesting discussion between the two of us. I would be curious to see the responses I get. One of my wife’s patients is a Doctor who used to work at the same hospital. This Doctor was diagnosed with rectal cancer. This Doctor had to take some time off of work to recover with chemotherapy and such. While she was recovering from chemotherapy her boards were due and she missed them. The administration used this as a reason to fire the doctor. This same Doctor was on her way to make a recovery and was even going to start her own practice, when she began feeling sick again. After a some tests it was discovered that the cancer that was getting better had returned and spread to the lungs. This Doctor has only 6 months left to live. The Doctor my wife works for said she would try to help this Doctor/patient as best as she could – maybe even pro-longing her life for a year and half to two years. The Doctor who was the patient responded with a simple answer. “Why?” This former co-doctor turned patient is not from the area and has no family that is close. She never married and has no children. After losing her Job you can probably guess that there is no money either. As you can guess from her response, and as my wife fears, this Doctor sounds as though she plans to take her own life in some way. The discussion between me and my wife was – Can you blame her? I feel that she is entitled and would be doing no wrong if she chooses to end her life at this point or sometime in the near future. I don’t think she should have to suffer and endure a painful end if she feels she does not want to. My wife disagrees – she thinks that it would be good to use that last little bit of life to get affairs in order and do something while enduring to the end. I can see the Point in that too – but I feel that a life ending in personal suffering such as this may not be worth it and there is no moral objections in my book about a suicide at this piont. What about you? What do you think? Religiously what is the answer? They say suicide is a “sin” – can it really still be a “sin” if you are the Doctor in the story above?