When Annie Zwijnenberg learnt she was suffering from Alzheimer’s, she knew what she wanted to do. She did not want to end up helpless in a care home, unable to fend for herself or even remember the names of her children. Instead she wanted to die in a manner of her own choosing. So this intelligent and otherwise healthy 81-year-old lay on her living room sofa, surrounded by her two daughters and son, and drank a poison. It started her on a gentle sleep — one that would last for ever.
Annie lived in the Netherlands, where euthanasia (deliberately ending a life to alleviate suffering) and assisted dying (helping a person to take their own life) have been legal since 2002 for people with intolerable
