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Death
Cancer surpasses heart disease as the leading cause of death in California and 21 other states
Cancer has surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in California and 21 other states, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That total is in stark contrast to the situation at the start of this century, when only two states — Alaska and Minnesota — lost more people to cancer than heart disease.
And it’s a huge departure from the situation in the 1950s, when the number of...
Related "Death" Articles
Cancer surpasses heart disease as the leading cause of death in California and 21 other states
Cancer has surpassed heart disease as the leading cause of death in California and 21 other states, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That total is in stark contrast to the situation at the start of this...
Why many hospice doctors like me won't participate in legal physician assisted suicide
On June 9 California will join four other states — Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — in allowing physician-assisted suicide. Meanwhile, my state, Arizona, and a dozen or so others are considering their own “right to die” laws. As a hospice...
Published in Los Angeles Times on May 12, 2016 — Print headline: "The right to die (the right way) - And taking a lethal dose is not it"
Public grieving over celebrity deaths is really a celebration of ourselves
Even before most major news outlets confirmed that Prince had died, mournful posts began filling my timeline. First, there was denial: “No. No. No,” a friend tweeted. “Not Prince, god dammit, not Prince,” wrote another. The other stages of grief soon...
Published in Los Angeles Times on April 27, 2016 — Print headline: "Grieving routine - When celebrities die, we celebrate ourselves"
A Texas man is due to die because he's black
Duane Buck was convicted in 1997 of murdering his ex-girlfriend and a male friend. After a Texas jury determined that he was likely to pose a continuing danger to society, it sentenced him to death. How did the jury conclude that he posed a future...
Published in Los Angeles Times on April 07, 2016 — Print headline: "Due to die because he's black"
Who will exercise the right to die?
As California's End of Life Option Act takes effect in June, data from states where aid in dying is already legal raises a question: Who will use the new law? In Oregon, Washington, Montana and Vermont, experience shows that participants will be few in...
Published in Los Angeles Times on March 27, 2016 — Print headline: "The right-to-die's diversity problem"
Opponents fail to derail the state's right-to-die measure, but they may yet try again in court
California's historic new right-to-die law, passed and signed during a special legislative session last year, won a further victory this week when its opponents fell far short of gathering the 365,880 signatures needed by Monday to put a referendum...
Published in Los Angeles Times on January 07, 2016 — Print headline: "A dignified law perseveres - Opponents failed to derail the state's right-to-die measure, but they may yet try again in court."
Why I'm not looking forward to the new year
My daughter Hannah died last year. A tumor slowly ate away at her 17-year-old brain, causing her to lose motor function, speech, life. It was March 2014. All the treatments and clinical trials and prayers couldn't stop it. And I still don't have the words...
Published in Los Angeles Times on December 30, 2015 — Print headline: "Not a happy new year"
The shame of state-sponsored killing
It's remarkable — and heartening — that for all the attention paid to the death penalty this year, the country's executioners had less business to tend than they have had since 1991. The final tally was 28 executions, carried out in only six states....
Published in Los Angeles Times on December 22, 2015 — Print headline: "The year in executions - The best way to end the shame of state-sponsored killings may be through the ballot box."
'I have terminal cancer. And I'm dying in a yearish.'
The enormity of the news didn't sink in fully, not at first, even after my doctor uttered the words: “I'm sorry, we did find cancer.” My husband, Dave, and I had only the faintest sense that evening that our lives had been hijacked forever.Early 2014...
Published in Los Angeles Times on December 13, 2015 — Print headline: "On `the night side of life'"
Gov. Brown was correct about the right-to-die bill
It is fitting that Gov. Jerry Brown wrote a thoughtful and unusually personal message when he signed the historic piece of legislation known officially as ABx2 15. This is the so-called right to die bill, which allows doctors, under tightly defined...
How the 'right to die' bill made it to a vote was wrong, but Brown should sign it anyway
State lawmakers shouldn't have subverted their own rules to allow a “right to die” bill to pass Friday during a special session on healthcare for the poor. Nevertheless, Gov. Jerry Brown should sign it, no matter what he thinks about how it reached his...
California needs a right-to-die law
It is unconscionable that California can't seem to pass a modest, sensible bill that would allow terminally ill people to end their lives peacefully and painlessly. The authors of SB 128, California's right-to-die bill, have pulled it from consideration...
California needs a right-to-die law
Much-needed and long-overdue legislation that would allow terminally ill Californians to end their lives peacefully and painlessly got off to a promising start earlier this year, passing two Senate committees and winning approval on the Senate floor....
Father sings 'Blackbird' to dying son after wife dies after childbirth
It was hard enough for Chris Picco to lose his wife after childbirth, but then his infant son died days later in his arms.
In a loving tribute video that has now gone viral, Picco strums his guitar and sings the Beatles' "Blackbird" to his...
Texas court orders brain-dead pregnant woman off life support
A Texas judge has ordered that a brain-dead pregnant woman be removed from life support after her husband filed suit against a Fort Worth hospital for "cruel and obscene mutilation" of a dead body.
In a case that has captured national headlines...
Letters: Death and the law
Re "Bad law, badly interpreted in Texas," Opinion, and "Bad behavior in California," Opinion, Jan. 16
The Times' juxtaposition of two timely, insightful Op-Ed pieces brings a focus to overheated issues ripe for resolution. The cases...
Jahi McMath family attorney: 'They are not fools. They know the odds'
The attorney for the family of Jahi McMath is defending their actions in a new op-ed that criticizes "self-righteous commenters" and praises the 13-year-old brain-dead girl's mother for her courage despite "incendiary, hateful public...
McMath attorney: Jahi's family aren't fools; they deserve better than ignorant attacks
I am the attorney who answered a call for help from Jahi McMath's family in December. I have represented them for free — starting 10 hours before the first order to turn off Jahi's ventilator at Children's Hospital Oakland — as they have fought for...
In Jahi's case, past time for a reality check
The case of Jahi McMath, the 13-year-old Oakland girl who was declared brain dead Dec. 12 following complications from tonsil and sinus surgery, hasn't ended yet. Insisting Jahi was still alive and should remain on the ventilator that was keeping her...
Case of brain-dead pregnant woman goes to Texas court
The husband of a brain-dead, pregnant woman filed papers in court Tuesday, accusing a Texas hospital of "cruel and obscene mutilation of a deceased body," and demanded that his wife be removed from a ventilator immediately.
Erick Munoz,...