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Ms. Vermeulen had been Ms. Liekens’ main support, but then she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2011 and suddenly needed support herself. The disease is still in its early stages, but it can lay her flat for months at a stretch.

Ms. Liekens has decided she wants to be euthanized once her son, now 17, has finished school and settled down. Ms. Vermeulen said she wants euthanasia before she becomes incapacitated like some of the people she sees in an MS centre she visits.

They are single with aging parents and just one child between them. They talk about dying together. “We are like a left leg and right leg. Two half persons make one,” Ms. Liekens said. Ms. Vermeulen added: “One without the other would be lost,”

Before attending Dr. Distelmans’ lecture, they found little openness to their talk of euthanasia. “Some people don’t understand that a young woman, even if she’s sick, even if she has MS, would even think about euthanasia,” Ms. Vermeulen said. Ms. Liekens said people react as if she’s crazy. “They say, ‘What are you talking about? There are people who are much worse,’ ” she said. “But people don’t feel my pain and suffering.”

Both have been rebuffed by their own doctors when they inquired about euthanasia. Ms. Liekens said her psychiatrist was not interested in helping her and suggested she wait a few years and perhaps by then she would be able to fetch a lethal dose at the pharmacy and do it herself. Ms. Vermeulen said her doctor told her not to lose hope that a medical advance could change her life. “He said, ‘No, you’re too young.’ ”