Medicine: Question: Who Will Play God?

Colorado's Governor causes a furor on the issue of dying

The words seemed calculated to provoke an uproar. Elderly people who are terminally ill "have a duty to die," declared Colorado Governor Richard Lamm, 48, at a meeting of the Colorado Health Lawyers Association last week in Denver. "Like leaves which fall off a tree forming the humus in which other plants can grow, we've got a duty to die and get out of the way with all of our machines and artificial hearts, so that our kids can build a reasonable life."

An uproar...