Right then, this is entirely conjecture on my part but its something I have given thought to before. I can't recall where I first read that QM died of lung cancer but given that she spent most of her life in the smoggy smokey London I would think that and her fondness for the Woodbines makes it more than feasible. Her fervent wishes for a trouble-free (to the Crown) end and her experiences with the death of her husband makes me think it quite possible she would have privately agreed with her doctors for her death not to be prolonged. *Gets a bit medical now* When someone is dying of a respiratory disorder (and for most lung cancers without early surgery, it is the primary that kills and not secondaries to other organs eg Vicky had breast cancer but it was the spread to her spine - and probably brain - that killed her) then there would be definite indications that death is inevitable and close. Patterns of breathing, called Cheyne-Stokes are a certain sign, as well as increases in signs that oxygen is no longer perfusing the body adequately. By now the patient would be slipping in and out of consciousness - and it can happen quite suddenly as if a border had been reached - and soon goes into a coma. Sometimes there is a rattle sound of secretions from the lungs which are not being cleared and remedies for this were available then as now. Narcotics such as morphine depress the respiratory centre in the brain and cause death by its gradual ceasing to send the message to breathe. An overdose is as painless a death as I can imagine or indeed have seen (I was a nurse)
