Who would wish to die if they weren't sick, suffering or terminal? Nobody. That is what the misinformed don't get. That's what this is about.
I don't like the idea of anybody being starved-dehydrated to death. WHOSE IDEA WAS THAT ANYWAY? (even people who can eat from a tray without feeding tubes are being starved to death. This disturbs me greatly).
Details! He is going to be a support for Terri? Wonderful.
Health officials can up living wills awareness, media release, October 28, 2003.
SENATOR: HEALTH OFFICIALS CAN UP LIVING WILLS AWARENESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Terry Schiavo - like three-fourths of all Americans - had no living will when she had a heart attack at age 26 and lapsed into a coma 13 years ago.
The Florida woman’s parents and husband became embroiled in a legal debate over whether she should be sustained on a feeding tube. More recently, the state’s governor and Legislature ordered further life-prolonging treatment.
The dispute on Tuesday prompted U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson to unveil legislation aimed at avoiding such gut-wrenching disputes in the future by making more people across the nation aware that they can write down instructions for their own final days. That way others won’t be deciding medical treatment for them.
“People have a right to be treated with dignity,” Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said today. “And there’s no reason why we shouldn’t help make them more aware that they can decide in advance about what kind of medical treatment they want at the end of life.”
Nelson’s bill covers those most likely to face looming decisions about whether to be kept alive on respirators or feeding tubes - people over 65 years of age. It does so by expanding Medicare to cover a single doctor’s office visit solely to discuss end-of-life treatments.
Such a discussion between a patient and doctor is recommended by experts in the field of aging. Yet Medicare has never covered a doctor’s visit specifically for talking about the kinds of medical decisions one is likely to face if they become incapacitated. When the federal health-care program for seniors was enacted in the 1960s, so-called living wills weren't often contemplated because medical technologies didn't provide as many possibilities for sustaining life.
Besides the Medicare provision, Nelson’s bill also would require the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop a $25-million public education campaign aimed at alerting adults of all ages about their health-care options should they not be able to communicate. It would be modeled after successful education campaigns on organ donation.
Before his election to the Senate in 2000, Nelson served as Florida’s treasurer for six years. During that time he was a founding board member of Aging with Dignity, a nonprofit Florida-based group that offers people information about living wills. Nelson friend Jim Towey, now head of President Bush’s faith-based initiatives office, created the nonprofit group.