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Choose Your Own Exit on the Freeway of Life

Wooooowwwwwwww ... will someone please stop the Quasimodo in my head from ringing those blasted bells so loudly.

Should have known, of course, that my mate Liz Windsor was a party animal and not to underestimate her powers for head-banging at our little bash at Buckingham Palace.

When I say head-banging it wasn't so much against a dance move, but rather she got me fair and square with a headbutt when I may have been slightly over the top about how England couldn't play cricket.

Anyway, the bruises will fade but as I was lying on the floor a thought came to the bleeding noggin. What if I was seriously ill, in extreme pain and just wanted to die.

Now having been around for to see 30 great-great-grandkids into the world I reckon I've done my fair share of living. When I feel the time is right for me to go - hopefully fairly painlessly - then I should be able to decide when, where and how.

The recent suicides of a high profile former US admiral, Chester Nimitz junior, and his wife - who were hitting springchickenhood at almost 90 - highlights the case for people having the right to choose to die.

The couple, who had been married for 63 years, were losing their quality of life through increasingly serious health problems and so decided to end it all together. They left a note saying they were happy to be doing so.

Now, of course, this will have people up in arms. One side will say "how dare they take life away", while others will say "it's their choice."

At the risk of getting a bazillion complaints from out there, I have to say that when my health really goes down the toilet - I want to pick how I go.

Having said that, there'll probably now be a knock on the door from the Life Police who, acting under orders from politicians, will no doubt tell me that I am not able to take my own life. Hello? Earth to government? Just who the hell are a pack of slack low-lifes to tell me what to do with my own life?

If animals are in extreme pain we put them down. There's no major stink about that, so why should releasing the aged, or very sick, from appalling pain or humiliating dependence be an issue?

It's time politicians sat down and listened to what the people want on this issue and not to make their minds up purely on their own notions of what is right or wrong. After all, they represent us - not their own pathetic little braincells (all two of them!).

If there is something that has really got up your nose, let Grumpy Old Coot know at grumpy@webwombat.com