Colorado: The right to die

Description:

In an OpEd piece in the Denver Post, Tom Jensen explains the things that went wrong on his father's path to death. Dad knew he didn't want invasive or institutional care, and he had a living will and power of attorney ready, and he had his son by his bed to advocate with the doctors — and still spent his last three weeks in institutions before he died.

So, everybody knew that dad didn't want his quality of life to be compromised. But it still cost $65,000 of tests in the hospital and another $25,000 of medical work in hospice. Dad's share was $350. His death certificate said that he died of leukemia.

On my old talk radio show, I used to joke about Dr. Death and the "Jack Kevorkian Pension Plan." I am not joking now. As former Governor Dick Lamm once said: "we have a duty to die." Especially if we want to.

Where's Jack when you need him?


[Note: Some other recent stories related to this topic are in the Links: section below.]

Links:

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Source:

Jensen, Tom. "The right to die". The Denver Post. Posted: 12/06/2009 01:00:00 AM MST. <www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_13920003>. The Denver Post, 101 W. Colfax Ave, Denver, Colorado, 80202, U.S.A.

Tags:

Tags (or keywords) briefly indicate some major topics of the report.

  • advance directives

  • right-to-die

  • Derek Humphry

  • Colorado

  • U.S.A.

ID:

The EuthaNEWSia ID for this advisory is: enid200912083054.
Mailed: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 14:40:00 -0600
at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Etcetera:

EuthaNEWSia is a free Canadian news advisory service covering end-of-life issues such as right to die, assisted suicide, and euthanasia. EuthaNEWSia is produced by the Right to Die Society of Canada which works toward a good death for all, including open, regulated and equitable access to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The editor is Michael Dawson <editor@euthanewsia.ca>.

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