Would you plan to be euthanized?

A lot of people have living wills that say they don’t want “heroic measures” performed to revive them if their heart stops. People tend to do this when they have debilitating diseases and little or no prospect of getting well.

That represents the passive side of it – “Don’t do anything if…”

How about the active side? Would you want someone to euthanize you if you lost your mind to Alzheimer’s, for instance? What if you had a head injury and became so violent that you had to be chained to a bed in a room that no one you knew would enter? What if you were catatonic or comatose, with little or no hope for recovery.

Are there any circumstances under which you would want your loved ones to give the order to put you out of your misery.

(I know there are legal issues involved. Please don’t deflect the discussion into those. This is about personal choice, not law.)