Palliative care or aid-in-dying? Why not both? Updated December 22, 2020, 2:30 a.m. Email to a Friend Getty Images My position is rooted in both rational and emotional considerations, having had two wives who died, one from a brain aneurysm and the other from cancer. In the first instance, we had discussed the issue of one of us being in a potentially terminal situation and what the other should do; in the second, we shared nine years of treatments and discussion of how long this should go on, even with palliative care playing a role. Advertisement It seems to me that ultimately, the individual should have the right to determine the course of her or his own life, including the end point. Should it be a question of either palliative care and hospice or aid-in-dying? Why not both options?