Dr Kevorkian, we need you!

In case you were in any doubt, THIS is one of the very good reasons why we need assisted suicide.

A jury has found 48 year old meat worker David Bourke guilty of manslaughter rather than murder due to his defence of provocation - his depressed brother Timothy begged David to end his life so David ended up shooting him 3 times.

Now, let's be clear here - we don't need assisted suicide so that Timothy could have ended his life in a more dignified way without anyone being guilty of murdering (or manslaughtering) him. We need assisted suicide because the availability of the service and the process of meeting the conditions of eligibility for assisted suicide is actually a deterrent to ending one's own life.

Given his age and lack of terminal illness, it is highly unlikely Timothy Bourke would have been eligible for assisted suicide. However he would have gone through specific counselling sessions talking with a specialist professional about his wish to die. That professional, while denying him assisted suicide, would now be in the position to get help for Timothy.

Once we start chipping away at the stigma of suicide (thanks, Catholic church, for telling grieving loved ones the deceased is going straight to hell) and accept that one has a right to end one's life if one wants to, we can build much stronger support networks for people who want to die.

Truth be told, I find the ideological arguments against assisted suicide to be pretty flimsy and hysterical. The slippery slope to mandatory death at a certain age or with certain illnesses is ridiculously unlikely in a democracy advanced enough to have in place assisted suicide policies. If you don't like suicide because of your religion, then don't commit suicide - your choices have nothing to do with other people and theirs have nothing to do with you. Of course the operational problems are a big challenge - how to make sure the service is not abused, what to do in cases of patients being unable to communicate their wishes etc. But those challenges are not insurmountable and are much better than the alternative.