Apparently, in countries where so-called doctor-assisted suicide is legal many people, if they have a terminal illness, having initially expressed an interest in being able to die quickly, do not take up the option as the end approaches. Perhaps all that they wanted was the reassurance that if the end was to become particularly unpleasant, it could be brought to a quick conclusion and, in the event, their final days passed peacefully. But perhaps it was because, as death approached, they started to hope that they might yet still have a future. We develop what psychologists call ‘cognitive
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