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Mary Ann, Having worked with Hospice for several years, I would hate to think that anyone would confuse this type of program & assisted suicide. Hospice is about comfort -- physical, emotional, spiritual. Medications certainly are given, but with the goal of comfort, not cure. The most common criteria for acceptance into hospice is a terminal illness, not simply a chronic one, with death expected within 6 months. There is no assist to death through hospice -- actually, the concept is neither to prolong nor hasten death. Assistance would be in obtaining & maintaining comfort, working out relationships, grieving, getting affairs in order, support & respite for caregivers, etc. Karen In a message dated 3/21/2005 12:37:26 AM Pacific Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: > As for assisted suicide - we already have such a thing. It is called > Hospice. If someone feels that they no longer want to continue to live > and > have a chronic, severe illness, all they have to do is get an order for > Hospice and insist that *no* further intervention, including IVs, > antibiotics, or any medication (including PD meds) be administered. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn