We can not know what would happen to us in life.. While we're alive.. A car accident? Loosing someone dear to us? Being fired? Going bankrupt? Or becoming paralyzed? I read a book a while ago. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. At the end of the book my cheeks were all wet. I cried like mad. It touched my heart deeply and I wanted to share this with you..



  The book is a love story about two people who have almost nothing in common. Louisa (Lou) Clark is a working-class girl living a simple life in a simple tiny village in England. Will Traynor is upper-class and he's been left quadriplegic after an accident. He was interested in exreme sports and everything exciting. After Lou loses her job as a waitress she accepts a position as Will's caregiver. By the time she discovers that Will has his own plans on what to do with his life. So she makes it her mission to show him that life is still worth living. Of course I won't tell you the ending but believe me after reading it you'll have a special place for the book somewhere deep in your heart. 

 But actually I want to tell you something else. It's a clinic called 'Dignitas', meaning honor (dignity) located in Switzerland. Euthanasia is legal in Switzerland since 1942 and Dignitas is the most famous clinic helping people die 'with dignity'. They help people who don't want to be burdened to their family and loved ones. Dignitas has some preconditions for the patient who wants to die; A disease which will lead to death (terminal illness), and/or an unendurable in capacitating disability, and/or unbearable and uncontrollable pain. Also the patient has to be mentally healthy. The patient has to pay over 8 thousand dollars for an accompanied suicide.

 When I first read about Dignitas in the book I was shocked. I thought that it wasn't real that it was the author's imagination but when a found out that it was truly legal I started to wonder if Jojo suffered something such as that but according to an interview her inspiration for this book was a young rugby player who was also in the book;
"It came about because I heard a news story on the radio about a young rugby player who’d been left quadriplegic after an accident, and who had persuaded his parents to take him to Dignitas, the clinic for assisted suicide in Switzerland. I couldn’t believe any parent would do that – and the story wouldn’t leave my head. And then the more I read up about the family the more I realized that things are not always as clear- cut as we would like."

 I can't and don't want to judge these people but is this really legal?


                                                                                                       Medine ISRAPILOVA