Sir Terry Pratchet, the British author has offered himself as a case for the study of assisted suicide because he has the earliest signs of Alzheimer's disease. Read a couple of his books many years ago and found them to be strange but funny. Debate has been going on about assisted suicide or euthanasia for more than two decades and as yet no consensus has emerged on whether it should be made legal. And rightly so. It is legal in a few countries but not in others so, for example, the British have been going to Switzerland to be able to end their lives. This is not just an enormously emotional subject but a legal minefield because the scope for abuse is unlimited. If a person has left a genuine ' living will ' stating the conditions under which they would like a premature end to their lives it is one thing but very often it is only when a person is discovered with an incurable condition that they decide that they need assistance to die. Is it really because of intolerable suffering or is it because of depression or because the person does not want to be a burden on loved ones or because relatives are suggesting this course to get their hands on property or maybe because of subtle changes in the brain due to the primary illness who is to decide? As a physician I have no idea as to how assisted suicide can be made into law while protecting the very vulnerable terminally ill person. One thing I know for sure is that no doctor should ever be involved in this. Our job must always be to serve the patient and not play God. Would I want my life to be terminated if I have terminal cancer or Alzheimer's? Absolutely.