Shouldn't the right to die be a human right?

[The Grand Nudger]

I haven't heard of anyone being able to think themselves dead. Hold one's breath only works in the minds of children.

And when you're in a hospital as a quadriplegic, death is not just a matter of willpower. Questions of medical liability can and do keep doctors from enacting your own wishes.

Competing imperatives, but that's never going to go away - even if there was a "right to die".  Nevertheless, no matter how skilled the physician, they cannot keep you alive if you do not want to be.  Which is why it's pointless to legislate life.  Willpower? I suppose thats part of it, but not the relevant part, "willpower" can neither kill you nor keep you alive, on it's on.

This is not me making an appeal to personal emotions. This is me telling you what I've witnessed at the time of my father's dying. You can believe it or not. That doesn't add any heft to your point.

You witnessed something, but you did not and cannot witness the only relevant metric in the situation you described. It;s not an issue of believing. You say he wanted to die and yet did not. Obviously, you're missing something, or some part of the sory was never related to you. We're not exactly indestructible. No one is holding anyone hostage, in life. We have right to refuse treatment, even quads. The only time we don't have such a right, is when "we" aren't there in the first place. Even if we didn't, again, human...frail.