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	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 118 words of the full text and any section headings.

McCue and Cohen¹ have presented an authoritative and arresting account of elderly Sigmund Freud's deliberate exit from the agonies of an invasive malignant epithelioma in 1939, as anticipated and planned by Freud and his trusted physician, Max Schur.

Such clinical histories argue cogently for the abandonment of the prevailing American professional taboo against "assisted suicide" and suggest that the provision of such surcease to exceptional patients is very much in the tradition of rational and ethical medicine.

Every life begun must confront extinguishment, and readiness for this return to oblivion is all. A school of healers in hubristic denial of this imperative is in defiance of nature, Providence, and kindly common sense.

William Steinsmith, MD
San Francisco, Calif

1. McCue JD, Cohen LM. Freud's physician-assisted death. Arch Intern Med. 1999;159:1521-1525. FREE FULL TEXT

Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:117.