"There are thousands of us that plan to enter the Big Sleep at a time of our own choice," he wrote at the time. "We are mostly not religious, but we are sensible, mature, perfectly in control, good and responsible citizens. "Our reason for suicide may be anticipation of pain and incompetence, but quite likely just a sense of a life accomplished and coming to a conclusion." Mr Shaw wrote that he was "not interested" in palliative care and resented the "do-gooders placing obstacles in our way". "Their activities are illegitimate interference with our liberty and autonomy in a matter most central to our life." Exit International on Friday said the Shaws were members and generous donors to the voluntary euthanasia group for more than a decade. "This is a suicide pact, but this is a couple who was not depressed. It was a considered, well-informed decision," the organisation's executive director, Fiona Stewart, said, adding that the group was seeing an increasing number of elderly couples choosing to die together because one of them does not want to be left behind.

"They present an example of where a voluntary euthanasia / assisted suicide law – if there ever were one in Victoria – would be of no help." The Shaws' deaths come amid heated debate over the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia in Australia. In an emotionally charged discussion on the ABC's Q&A program this week, panellists debated a proposal to allow assisted suicide for the terminally ill, which soon turned to possible moves to extend euthanasia to children, the mentally ill and people with disabilities. Last month, one of the world's leading euthanasia campaigners and Exit International founder, Dr Philip Nitschke, agreed to stop giving advice to people about how to end their own lives and no longer run workshops on end-of-life strategies in a trade-off to keep his medical registration. There have also been concerns about young people taking Nembutal – dubbed the "peaceful pill" - to end their own lives, with data from the national coronial information system showing 120 people died by taking the medication over 12 years. The list included one person under the age of 20, 11 people in their 20s and 14 people in their 30s.

In an opinion piece published in The Age this week, broadcaster Andrew Denton questioned why rational adults who were dying, and asking for help to die quickly, should be refused. "People in nursing homes, hospitals, and our communities facing unbearable pain for which there is no relief, some of whom end their lives violently because they are offered no choice about how they can die," he wrote. "Yet on these people, the leaders of our medical bodies are silent. 'We cannot have an assisted dying law,' they say, 'the numbers are only small and the risks too great'. Only the nurses – the ones who, tellingly, see this suffering close up – have listened: they say the law needs to change." An obituary notice for the Shaws late last month read that they passed peacefully on October 27 and are survived by their daughters Judith, Anny and Kate.



A friend recently posted a tribute online, farewelling the couple she said she had known since 1972. "Generous and hospitable, great conversationalists, interested in a wide range of events and activities," she wrote. On average over the past 10 years there have been 2300 suicides a year. During that period, people aged 85 and over made up just 2.2 per cent of all suicide deaths.

Police are preparing a report for the coroner. For help or information call Lifeline on 131 114 or SuicideLine on 1300 651 251.