An open appeal to other countries

To the parliaments of the Netherlands, of Belgium, of Spain, of Portugal, of Switzerland, of Canada, of New Zealand, and of every nation that has already chosen to treat the end of life with the same humanity you extend to animals: thank you. You have shown it is possible.

We write from a country whose government has, so far, refused. People here are still dying in pain they need not suffer, held to a law that will not let them choose, held to a standard we would never apply to a creature in our care.

We ask you to keep your doors open to us. When our own parliament will not act, we will carry our letters to yours — not to interfere, but to be heard. We ask you to receive them, and to say plainly, in your chambers, that dignity at the end of life is a right, not a kindness to be rationed.

And we ask you to say it loudly enough that it reaches the country that will not yet listen to its own dying. Shame, if reason cannot, may do the work.

We are not a government. We are families, and people living with a terminal illness, and the supporters who stand with them. We are asking, plainly, for help.