At the same time, who knows how any of us would react to a diagnosis of any extremely painful and incurable – if not strictly terminal – disease? As many as a third of Irish doctors say they have been asked by patients to helpend their lives

BRITISH maestro Edward Downes, who conducted the BBC Philharmonic and the Royal Opera has died with his wife, Joan, at anassisted suicide clinic in Switzerland. He was 85 and she was 74.