BBC Host Admits Killing Ailing Partner

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/world/europe/18britain.html

Questions

1. What do you think about “assisted suicide”? Do you think the people who help their family or friends to suicide should be punished or not?

2. Do you agree with euthanasia? Why do you agree or not?

3. If your family member is in terrible pain, and there’s nothing more to treat him/her. Then what are you going to decide for them? and why? 

New Vocabulary

Ailing: sickly, unwell

Slip out: to be said or revealed inadvertently

Stricken: If a person or place is stricken by something such as an unpleasant feeling, an illness, or a natural disaster, they are severely affected by it.

Smother: to stifle or suffocate, as by smoke or other means of preventing free breathing.

Furious: full of fury, violent passion, or rage; extremely angry

Euthanasia: Also called mercy killing. the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, esp. a painful, disease or condition.

Bluff: good-naturedly direct, blunt, or frank; heartily outspoken

Ambiguity: doubtfulness or uncertainty of meaning or intention

Interim: Interim is used to describe something that is intended to be used until something permanent is done or established.

Lawsuit: A lawsuit is a case in a court of law which concerns a dispute between two people or organizations.

Acquitted: If someone is acquitted of a crime in a court of law, they are formally declared not to have committed the crime.

Yearned: If someone yearns for something that they are unlikely to get, they want it very much.

Prosecution: It is the action of charging someone with a crime and putting them on trial.

Verdict: In a court of law, the verdict is the decision that is given by the jury or judge at the end of a trial.