Damn, this is sad. →[More:]I have an online friend who I know through a spiritual group, a woman in her late 70s. She's been diagnosed with Alzheimers, mild at present but obviously incurable and going to get worse.

Her husband, in his 80s, is very frail, he's had several major illnesses, surgeries, hospitalisations in recent years. I've gathered, from her emails over the last few months, that generally life is grim for them both.

Now she's emailed the list asking if anyone knows a method of suicide that's "undetectable".

I've written back saying I'm not going to moralise or sermonise to her, I'm not in her shoes, but that an "undetectable" suicide could result in an innocent person being accused of homicide.

I feel so sad for her. I can't criticise what she and her husband might be planning to do. I saw my friend Bob die a terrible slow death from a brain tumour, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to hang around if I was at the point where the quality of life was barely tolerable and likely to deteriorate.