What is your thoughts on assisted suicide?

I'm a hospice nurse on the west coast of America, where assisted death is legal. I have lots of very strong thoughts and feelings about this, but I'll share a story with you. I had a little old lady dying of cancer that had spread throughout her body, making life just generally pretty uncomfortable. She was very independent and preferred to do most things herself. She had a major cancer-related wound that she wouldn't let me care for her, she would only allow me to instruct her and it wasn't ideal...but, we give people what they want because on hospice we're just helping people to be comfortable in whatever way THEY define it. Anyway, this lady told me from day 1 that she wanted to pursue assisted death. Her adult children were opposed. Because she relied on them to take her to doctor visits and basically communicate for her to a major extent, they blocked her from pursuing assisted death. Fast forward a couple months and she begins her late stage dying process. She's become bedbound, she has lost her ability to swallow so she can't eat or drink. she can barely speak, she is in tremendous pain, she's delirious. She needs round the clock care. Oh, and remember how independent she was? Well, she's just barely coherent enough to be able to refuse medications to help her be more physically comfortable and easier to care for. She's up all night. She thinks she want to get out of bed, she keeps trying to get out of bed and leave...her legs don't even work. And this lady had the stamina of a work horse. She was in this condition for a solid 2 weeks. her kids are exhausted, stressed, traumatized, watching their once independent mother slowly lose herself and struggle to accept their help. Not even halfway into the first week, the son looked me in the eye with fear, sadness, guilt, and shame...and said to me "if I knew it was gonna be like this we would've let her do the assisted death thing." Yeah. No kidding. The problem I see not so uncommonly is that people are making decisions about how they think they want their loved one's to die without knowing what dying is like. This is a really good time to listen to the advice of people who witness death professionally on a regular basis. I'm not allowed to tell people to pursue assisted death, so that wouldn't have been my advice. but I am allowed to inform people about their disease process, what they might expect, and what assisted death does and is for. Assisted death reduces suffering and has the ability to make an already inevitable death more humane, graceful, and dignified. This is not suicide.