Instances of euthanasia or mercy killing date back to antiquity. However, it is only recently that the unprecedented grassroots efforts to legalize euthana sia have begun building. "Terminal Illness, Assistance with Dying," a California ballot initiative for the No vember 1992 election, might for the first time in modem history legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide by physicians. Similar initiatives are planned in other states. To vote intelligently, citizens in California and throughout the United States need to learn who is likely to request euthanasia or assisted suicide, and why. How...

When Dr. David Cundiff called me with a proposal to help research and write The Right Medicine I was intrigued but skep tical. His ideas for reform of the US health care system were visionary, radical, and highly original-but would they work? As a Wall Street analyst and long-time student of the health care system, I had my doubts. had read David's book on hospice care, Euthanasia Is Not the I Answer, and was impressed. And I had recently witnessed the slow death of my grandmother from the complications of Alzheimer's disease. Despite the fact that she was and had been suffering for years and...

When Dr. David Cundiff called me with a proposal to help research and write The Right Medicine I was intrigued but skep- tical. His ideas for reform of the US health care system were visionary, radical, and highly original-but would they work? As a Wall Street analyst and long-time student of the health care system, I had my doubts. had read David's book on hospice care, Euthanasia Is Not the I Answer, and was impressed. And I had recently witnessed the slow death of my grandmother from the complications of Alzheimer's disease. Despite the fact that she was and had been suffering for years...

Instances of euthanasia or mercy killing date back to antiquity. However, it is only recently that the unprecedented grassroots efforts to legalize euthana- sia have begun building. "Terminal Illness, Assistance with Dying," a California ballot initiative for the No- vember 1992 election, might for the first time in modem history legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide by physicians. Similar initiatives are planned in other states. To vote intelligently, citizens in California and throughout the United States need to learn who is likely to request euthanasia or assisted suicide, and why. How...