How do I stop myself from killing a character I love?

I’ve never killed a character before but I have a really strong urge to kill off one of my favorite characters at the end of my novel. I know he needs to die, but I’m having trouble committing to it, because I’m attached to him and I know my beta-readers will be devastated. I know I’m not the first person to kill a favorite character, so how do you do this? Is it something you do willy-nilly, or do you actually prepare yourself for it? Do you ever find yourself wondering why you killed the character in the first place? How do you cope with the grief of killing a character you love, and how do you help readers cope?<br> <br>I know some of you will say I’m overreacting but I pay a lot of attention to character development and so killing a character that I’ve spent so much time cultivating feels like a loss to me. My other characters have the same reaction (grief, etc), but at the end of the day, I’m still the one killing them, so boo-hoo me.