How to end one's life without committing the unpardonable sin of murder.

People believe there are two ways of dealing with terrible terminal illness; endure till the end, or end the life early. There is a third choice which a man took in 1982 and was hailed a hero.

Barney Clark was suffering from heart disease and opted for a new procedure, the world's first artificial heart. Mr Clark knew he was not going to live long with the transplant. He barely survived 112 days.

When we are faced with an illness of immense suffering for which there is no ease of pain we should be able to decide to volunteer for medical research as Barney Clark did. There are always any number of experimental drugs and procedures that by law cannot be performed on humans because they have not been approved for use.

I believe in those circumstances the patient has the right to choose. This is not suicide. Barney Clark did not commit suicide, even though his choice was responsible for his death. His act saved lives as research on his artificial heart provided the medical profession with knowledge that could not be obtained otherwise. In the end he has been responsible for saving lives.