Stats for the culture of death...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The annual report on assisted suicide for terminally ill patients in Oregon shows 60 people ended their lives last year by taking a lethal drug dose prescribed under the Death With Dignity Act. (Orwellian term alert!)

It was the highest annual total in the 11-year history of the law twice approved by Oregon voters and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But state health officials said the pattern remains the same - nearly all the patients were older, suffered from cancer and died at home.

A total of 401 Oregonians have died under the law that requires at least two doctors to approve requests by patients with less than six months to live. (Old joke: What's the difference between God and a doctor? Answer: God never acts like he's a doctor.)

Oregon was the first state to approve such a law. An almost identical law takes effect Thursday in Washington state.

My old man died of cancer in '77. This was just as the hospice movement got going. He wasn't part of it so he went the old fashioned way, in a hospital doped up with morphine at the end. Pretty bad before they gave him the morphine, towards the end I kept wishing I had the willpower to just put a pillow over his face until he stopped breathing.

Things have improved, I understand that these days they'll "eightball" you so you're lucid yet managing the pain. That'll go right on till the end. So why hurry things along?

Even if it still had to be done the way my father went, I'd prefer that to checking out on my own. Nowadays I realize that even with the pain, he still got to say his goodbyes. If it happened again I'd just prop a pillow under his head and hold his hand. Maybe I was stronger than I thought?

Regardless, doctors shouldn't be allowed to play God.