If we want Medicare to work we are going to have to raise Medicare taxes and premiums.

[GreenPartyVoter]

68. With my luck I will get just so thirsty and drink something. Besides, relatively painless is

still somewhat painful. I want to go quietly, I want my family to still be able to collect my life insurance, and I don't want to become a burden on them even for the days or weeks it takes me to dehydrate to death. If I had bone cancer, for example, I would be in excruciating pain the entire time I was waiting to die.

Just because some people would choose euthanasia doesn't mean we will suddenly have euthanasia facilities. That would be like calling women's health centers abortion mills. It would just be a small part of medical care, and not everyone would avail themselves of it. Some people would forgo on religious grounds, some would skip it and roll the dice and see how long they will make it. There would have to be some standards set in place for nonterminal patients suffering from mental illness. There would also have to be some worked out to prevent families from chucking their parents when they get tired of taking care of them and don't want to pay exorbitant costs for professional care. But even so, that doesn't mean we should give up on the idea that people should have the right to choose a _painless_ dignified death.