As a care of the dying specialist in the past I have often been asked to kill people - which is euthanasia, mercy killing or assisted suicide. The article is based on an address given in the House of Lords, Westminster in the early 1990s to Members of both Houses of Parliament, and on what I wrote in my first book The Truth about AIDS published in 1987. Many country laws have changed since but the principles of good patient care described below have not. Sometimes relatives have taken me on one side and told me they cannot bear it any more: "Isn't there something you can do to end it all?"  More often requests for euthanasia have come from those who are ill. I remember visiting a man with lung cancer. He asked his wife to leave the room. As she closed the door he leaned over and grabbed my arm. "I want to die", he said. "Please can you give me something." He felt a burden on his wife and wanted euthanasia for himself. People are often more afraid of the process of dying than of death itself.  Reasons why I am totally opposed to euthanasia.