?Do you really want to die today?? asked the nurse, a small glass of deadly barbiturates in her hand. Michele Causse on her 74th birthday on 29 July 2010 was lying in bed dressed in a white suit, complete with a rose on her jacket buttonhole. In the backdrop of classical music, she replied cool headedly, not a trace of hesitation or regret in her voice, ?Yes, it is my wish to die.?

My hair stands on end every time this incredible preparation of death flashes through my mind. I call this murder, killing someone even though they are asking for death. Do you think it is mercy killing? Just see how it happened with Mich?le who went from France to die in Zurich. A French radical lesbian theorist and author, Mich?le?s criticism of heterosexuality is well known, ?As long as a woman wishes to please a man, she is inauthentic… She does not have the integrity, the un-corruptibility that comes with not wishing to please.? Accompanied by her girlfriend, Mich?le enjoyed a boat-ride at a Zurich lake, sat on a park-bench chatting, laughing and drinking coffee. Looking elegant with Dior dark-glasses, Mich?le then entered a home where a white-haired woman greeted her like she was welcoming a friend home. In reality this was Erika Luley, a nurse from Dignitas, an assisted suicide organisation in Switzerland. Suffering from a non-lethal, but incurable and extremely painful bone disease, Mich?le was here because she decided she had ?the liberty to die.?

A video recording of her last minutes showed her voluntarily coming to bed, while nurse Luley prepared the poisonous potion. The way the little glass exchanged hands, it appeared like Mich?le was accepting a stimulating shot of cognac. Perhaps to obliterate pity and help Erika do her job, Mich?le asked, ?Are you again going to remind me this will be my last drink? Of course, I know it.? Erika Luley smiled, warmly kissed Mich?le on both cheeks, Mich?le reciprocated. ?How long will it take?? Mich?le queried with no anxiety on her face. ?Two to five minutes. It will make you sleep, but I?ll give you some chocolate to sweeten your mouth.? Swallowing the fatal drink Mich?le chortled, ?I want another chocolate, this is bitter.? She then chatted with her girlfriend, the official witness of Mich?le?s suicide act, hugged her goodbye, the nurse too, and closed her eyes. About 30 minutes later Erika took Mich?le?s pulse to ascertain her death, called Ludwig Minelli, the Swiss lawyer who founded Dignitas in 1998, and informed the police. As has happened for the over 800 suicide cases that Dignitas had assisted, the police, prosecutor and coroner opened an investigation that concluded with a dismissal.

In early March 2011, the controversial subject of euthanasia made headlines when India?s Law Commission decided to recommend that the Government allow its passive form. This joggled me back to when I first read about it. In my initial career in Paris I?d sought and got advice from the famous Russian artist Maitre Arte. But more than that, I owe him the big idea of reading a few classics and at the same time keeping an economic viewpoint, to develop a wider perspective of the world in different areas. I?d rush to FNAC at rue de Rennes and WH Smith, and will never forget their kindness in allowing me to pour over books for hours in their bookshops. I simultaneously read Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Sigmund Freud, Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Victor Hugo, the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran and the Bible. My biggest learning about life and business came from these nonstop readings. While doing so, I was shocked to find that the devil?s workshop of euthanasia was crafted as early as 1924 in Mein Kampf: ?He who is bodily and mentally not sound and deserving may not perpetuate this misfortune in the bodies of his children. The v?lkische (people?s) state has to perform the most gigantic rearing-task here. One day, however, it will appear as a deed greater than the most victorious wars of our present bourgeois era.?

In 1939, the German parents of a severely deformed child wrote to Adolf Hitler seeking his permission for their child to be put to death. Hitler approved, obsessed as he was with ?racial purity.? He then used this as precedent to establish euthanasia, his euphemistic term for systematic killing of the mentally and physically disabled in a clandestine Nazi murder programme called Action T4. In Hitler?s words, such people were ?unworthy of life.? The Nuremberg Trials after World War II found evidence that upto October 1941, about 275,000 people were killed under T4.

Greek word euthanasia, meaning ?painless, happy death,? raises questions today of the morality of killing, whether a pain-suffering person?s consent is valid, what are the duties of doctors. Euthanasia is a pressing issue because advanced medical technology such as dialysis, intravenous feeding and respirators can sustain and extend life. Active euthanasia means assisting in the direct act of ending life, while passive euthanasia is discontinuing life-sustaining medical treatment for the terminally ill. But can helping people to die be a profession? With the motto, ?To live with dignity, to die with dignity,? Dignitas charges patients 4,000 euros for preparation and suicide assistance, or 7,000 euros for funerals, medical costs and official fees.

Switzerland?s mountains and lakes conjure up everyone?s dream vacation. At the same time Switzerland also maintains a kind of hypocrisy. It?s the only country in the world that allows foreigners to come to commit suicide or to launder their ill-gotten money. Somehow staying profitably afloat by being neutral in the two World Wars, Switzerland became a haven for refugees, revolutionaries and espionage by Allied and Axis powers alike. Everyone banked with the Swiss, including the six million Jews that Hitler exterminated in the Holocaust.

Personally, I believe in the importance of human breath. Nobody can give life at will, human beings have human value. You may or may not agree, but I don?t believe any person has the right to cold-bloodedly take the life of another, whether in mercy killing or death sentence. Let?s hope India doesn?t take a decision in favour of euthanasia. That?s because, aside from moral, religious or human rights issues, there?s a likelihood of it being misused.

?Shombit Sengupta is an international Creative Business Strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com