NZer — 7 years ago(May 14, 2018 04:39 AM)

https://startsat60.com/countries/all/david-goodall-voluntary-euthanasia-exit-international-assisted-suicide
Professor David Goodall, the 104-year-old Australian scientist who flew to Switzerland to end his life, left no doubt in watchers’ minds that he was keen to die, with his final words being a little complaint that the last legal steps he was required to take in order to commit suicide were taking too long.
The celebrated botanist and ecologist was accompanied by three of his grandchildren when he died at 8.30pm AEST on Thursday night in the Life Circle suicide clinic in Basel, Switzerland.
Dr Philip Nitschke, the long-time euthanasia campaigner who helped Goodall fast-track his way through Life Circle’s lengthy waiting list, said in a press statement that he was also with the scientist, who’d been a member of Nitschke’s right-to-die organisation Exit International for 20 years, when he passed away.
Goodall, who had no terminal illness but had said that he felt he had lived longer than he wished, tried to take his own life at least three times before seeking Exit International’s practical assistance, and lamented the fact that he had to leave Australia to die.
“At my age, or less than my age, one wants to be free to choose the death when the death is at an appropriate time,” Goodall reportedly said prior to attending the clinic. “My abilities have been in decline over the past year or two, my eyesight over the past six years. I no longer want to continue life.”