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The severely handicapped people who fear legislation enabling Death with Dignity are actually concerned about a loss of control. Their concern is that someone else would have a say in whether they live or die, but they fail to realize that it's the same concern terminal patients share over a stranger (or misguided relative) taking control of that patient's life and ordering treatment they don't want.

It's called Florida Daughter Syndrome by people like my sister, a nurse in a cancer ward. Having had no contact with the patient for a long time, the relatives come flying in to visit, and upon discovering that Grandma's 85 and terminal, they threaten the docs and nurses furiously, demanding "Don't you let her die!"

Their guilt, fear of death, and misguided concern for the dying relative leads them to insist on medical treatments completely unwise for that patient, and against the patient's own preferences. The poor patient is at the mercy of decisions by others, bereft of control over his or her own condition, and often also victimized by bad doctors who won't prescribe adequate pain control, their own unreasonable fears leading them to deny mercy to the suffering patient.

I look very, very closely at the motives and reasoning of people who want to leave me in that helpless condition.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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I work in an office where several young women are bilingual. They slip easily from English to Spanish in their personal conversation, which is amusing and reminiscent of a feature I heard last friday, on NPR's The World, about the Puerto Rican comic who talks about "Spanglish." Professionally, these successful English learners are a tremendous asset, as they can communicate clearly with clients who speak only English or Spanish, and give them useful information they can understand about important medical, financial and even personal questions vital to those clients.

posted 4 years, 7 months ago
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While I can't agree with women who made the decision to have an abortion, regret it later, and want to forbid the option to everyone, I do want people to know that Planned Parenthood does take care to make sure women are certain in their decision when they schedule an abortion. They aren't the only place to get one, just the most visible as their help for the poor and un-insured is a last resort for many. They also can help a woman find counseling afterward, and they recommend the Exhale hotline -- www.4exhale.com for people who want to talk about the procedure.

posted 4 years, 8 months ago
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