Medical technology may keep people alive longer, but it can't always offer them any quality of life to sustain them.

But this is not the role of medicos alone - it is up to family members, friends and others in the community to help people find reasons to go on living. We should be encouraging their resolve to go on, not removing it.

And by "we" I don't simply mean the legislators or the medicos; I mean each of us, taking it upon ourselves to try to help others find constructive purpose for their lives.

Supporters of assisted dying often say that it is an individual choice. That may or may not be, but it is all too often made in the midst of great loneliness, by people who feel that the world has ceased to care and that nobody treats them with the dignity they deserve.

It was Victor Frankl, the psychotherapist who survived the nightmare of the Nazi POW camps, who noted that people can endure a great deal of pain, so long as they see a purpose in their pain.

My own mother, whom I love dearly, has Alzheimer's disease. She has always been a remarkable woman, in her own quiet yet strong-willed way. Having raised seven children and several foster children, she is still finding ways to serve others in her care facility.

She would never consider asking to end her life, despite the confusion and uncertainty she faces at times. In fact, she has found in her situation as sense of vocation - an opportunity to serve others in the care facility where she lives. Along with medication, I'm sure this is helping to keep the effects of the disease at bay.

There's a potential for tragic mistakes with assisted dying laws. If people are unable to speak for themselves, if they're in a coma or incapacitated in some other way, how can there be a "well considered" request to die?

According to the Dutch government's own statistics 913 people had their lives terminated in 1995 without their express consent. Sometimes, the decision is being taken out of the hands of the patient.

Even when it seems the person's request is well considered, it may be based more on emotional trauma and fear than it is on physical suffering.

In another Dutch study, only five percent of patients who decided to go through with doctor-assisted suicide listed physical pain as the biggest factor in their decision. The most prominent factor was the fear of suffering, or shame.

In an age where, thankfully, emotional problems including depression and anxiety disorders are now openly discussed, surely we can find constructive ways to help people through these times of emotional upheaval.

There is at least one other reason for avoiding assisted dying legislation.

What one generation finds tolerable the next may treat as normal. We simply can't tell right now how assisted dying laws will impact upon or be interpreted by coming generations.

The next step from assisted dying may be "designer death" where consumers can choose from a catalogue of options how and when they want to die. Death may even become a marketable commodity.

The suffering of terminally ill people is very real, but, as the old saying goes, "two wrongs don't make a right". For all their good intentions, I think, advocates of assisted dying may be leading us slowly toward a culture of death, where human life is even more expendable than it is today.

About Mal Fletcher:
Mal Fletcher is an author, social commentator, global conference speaker, leadership consultant and TV and radio broadcaster based in London.

Copyright Mal Fletcher 2008, Next Wave International, www.malfletcher.net Printed with permission