People who are dying know what they want. As the years go by in the next decade, how we take care of these people is going to be critical. Next month, six community-based teams of doctors, nurses, social workers, clergy and attorneys will be trained in West Virginia to help people die comfortably.
Similar efforts are under way in other states, including Hawaii and Nevada.
Care for the dying has shot to the forefront of public consciousness, in part because of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. It tells us we need to be more proactive. We don't want euthanasia to need to be an option for people. He's doing all of us a favor in that he's forcing us to look and evaluate what we're doing for dying patients. From my viewpoint, it's a positive outcome.