The 47-year-old Gaby O. received euthanasia in a special end-of-life clinic in March 2014. Gaby was suffering unbearably because she heard the continuous sounds of a braking train in her head. Many people suffer from tinnitus, as it is called, and fortunately it only rarely leads to euthanasia. Gaby had tried everything. She even considered having her auditory nerves cut, but doctors didn’t want to operate, because it often worsens the tinnitus. However, in cases where the patients are desperate and considering ending their life, experimental surgery may be the only option left. In fact, every capable person should have the right to decide what is to happen to the own body, including how and when life should end.
While her chances were small, Gaby should have been offered an experimental treatment. Brain surgery perhaps, sharing the fate of a laboratory animal. If so, Gaby might have recovered, and, if not, at least she would have been granted the honour of becoming a contributor to the advancement of science. That would have been true eu-thanasia, a ‘good death’. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. Nevertheless, I hope her death won’t be in vain and her memory shall contribute to the enhancement of compassion in society. Gaby, R.I.P.

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