(New Vision 30) – Desperate to end their suffering, an impoverished Bangladeshi father has begged permission to kill three terminally ill members of his family, sparking a rare debate about euthanasia in a deeply conservative society.

"I have taken care of them for years. I took them to hospitals in Bangladesh and India, I sold my shop to pay for their treatment but now I'm broke," said Tofazzal Hossain as he describes his years-long struggle to cope with the costs of looking after his two sons and grandson.

"The government should decide what it wants to do with them. They are suffering and have no hope of recovery. I can't bear it any longer."

Hossain, a fruit vendor from the rural west of the country, wrote to his local district administration pleading for them to either help care for his loved ones -- who suffer from an incurable form of muscular dystrophy -- or "allow them to be put to death with medicine", he told AFP. CONTINUE