My wife was diagnosed as having less than two weeks to live three times. She lived for five wonderful years and was able to see our three daughters grow up through most of their teen years.

This is about California trying to cut costs, not about "death with dignity."

Doctors are wrong about how long you have to live ALL THE TIME. This is wrong.

I won't disagree that the state has a financial incentive in this Joe. But for many it is not how long you have to live but the quality of that life. There is a big difference between five years of active life and five years hooked to a ventilator and tubes, confined to a bed and in constant pain.

Joe, I'm sorry for what you and your wife went through, but this is about giving terminally ill people a choice. How can you be against something having a choice to end their suffering -- and help to do it when they cannot do it themselves?

In June one of my six sisters took my 78-year-old mother to the emergency room. She had chest pain and palpitations, she was short of breath, her blood pressure was really high, her legs were swollen, and she had an excruciating headache and pain in her legs.

She was admitted to the hospital. Over the next three days she got worse. Nothing could relieve the pain. It looked bad. The attending doctor consulted with two others and all three agreed that this was it, she was dying. She could go at any time. They recommended taking her home, making her as comfortable as possible, and calling family to come and see her for the last time.

They took her home. They discontinued most of her many medications, all except the ones that relieve distressing symptoms and make her comfortable, and they stopped checking her blood pressure. We flew in from all over.

Over the next week she got better. Today she's her usual, happy, humorous self; still far from healthy, but happy.

We figured out that she wasn't dying. Her medical care was killing her. My sisters discussed all of this with her doctor and she agreed. We now have a different care plan: just treat any discomfort and distress; don't worry about the rest.

We've accepted the fact that she's going to die, maybe tonight, maybe in 20 years. Now that we're not trying so hard to keep her alive, she lives.

"Her medical care was killing her"

This is called "iatrogenesis."

Your ideal form of medical care is not needing to get into the medical care system.

Joe. I am sorry to hear about your ordeal.

However, watch How to Die in Oregon. Those people didn't want to die. The mom in the movie was told 6 months, but the. She was feeling so much better she thought she would make it to the holidays. - which she wanted, she didn't want to leave her kids, but she took a turn and went down hill fast and it was irreversible. It was the end. But rather than slowly suffocate for weeks in her own fluids, she basically took a pill and fell asleep with her family. She just never woke up.

The people are not suicidal, the just don't want to languish for months in painful misery wearing a diaper.

Joe is absolutely right. California is full of Democrats and they want your mother to die cheap so they can spend the money on cocaine, abortions, anchor babies, and subverting the word of G*d.

I think should people should have a choice...

but then it is clear the doctors don't know. Just tonight I got word a friend had passed...the Sat before last he was full of life though his wife told us that doctors figured he had about another year and there was a few things she asked us to do for him...now roughly a week later he is gone.

My grandmother was worse ...after the 7pm check the doctors said she was good to go...well as good as she had been for years...and they were filling out the paperwork to send her home in the morning. At 9pm they called to let us know she had passed.

On the other hand one of my parents friends was given the any minute now...twice even calling in the priest to give last rights...she went on to live another ~7 years dieing of something else only slightly affected by the original problem.

I personally think the *right to die* movement is the flip side of SJW crusade for the right to live as you chose ( and without being offended or troubled by any thing said or done by your fellow man)

Both of them will have horrible unintended consequences which are already becoming apparent.

I don't think society or government should be in the business of facilitating quick and pain free solutions to life's most intractable problems.

Everyone already has a *right to die*. What they don't have a right to, and shouldn't have a right to, is to command government or social resources to facilitate that choice.

This bill doesn't do that yet, but it is coming.,.,,

How can you be against something having a choice to end their suffering -- and help to do it when they cannot do it themselves?

My understanding is that this law requires the patient to administer their own drugs. Is that incorrect? This is less "assisted suicide" and more "we won't charge you or anyone else with a crime if you make yourself a nice cup of hemlock tea, as long as you can follow some rules".

Isab is right: what's coming is that you have a duty to croak. It's the patriotic thing to do.

My wife WAS Terminal...for five years. She had stage 4 ovarian cancer and went through chemo three times during that time. She was in great pain and suffering for nearly the entire period, with many health complications from the chemo. After the last chemo did not work (FDA would not approve Avastin as the standard of care for ovarian, even though it has had dramatic results), she spent five weeks in the hospital wasting away--full of tubes and miserable the whole time.

She was sent home to die, and we were told she would lucky to last a week. My three daughters and I took care of her for four months...tubes, medicine, Foley bag, ostomy bag and all. It was a wonderful gift to be able to take care of her and ease her transition.

She finally died at home, in her sleep, peacefully.

I could go on for a long time about how the medical establishment failed her over and over again, and their worst mistakes were about how long she had to live...many times.

"FDA would not approve Avastin as the standard of care for ovarian, even though it has had dramatic results"

There's the only health care plan you can keep if you want it - and a splendid confirmation of my oft-repeated truth: If you don't pay, you have no say in how you are treated. You are a commodity, not a patient or customer.