Most Would Let Terminally Ill Die : Eighty-three percent say patients who choose death should be allowed to refuse life-sustaining treatment.

Despite voting decisively against a recent ballot measure that would have approved physician-assisted suicides, Orange County residents believe that terminally ill patients should be allowed to end their lives by refusing life-sustaining treatment, The Times Poll found.

Fully 83% of county residents--including 85% of the elderly--say that “life-sustaining treatment should be withheld or withdrawn from terminally ill patients” if they so desire; or if that is what the family wants and the patient is unable to communicate. Only 12% disagreed.

The views expressed in The Times Poll are in stark contrast to results in the election last November, when county residents voted 58% to 42% to defeat Proposition 161, a measure that would have explicitly permitted doctor-assisted suicide and euthanasia for terminally ill patients. Statewide, the measure lost by a smaller margin, 54% to 46%.

“The public does make a clear distinction between extending the life of a patient needlessly and the sanctioning of a physician-assisted death,” said John Brennan, director of The Times Poll, explaining the difference in results. The public is saying that providing assistance for a terminally ill patient in ending his or her life--as proposed in the ballot measure--”is effectively a suicide, and the other is not,” Brennan said.

There was broad consensus among a variety of groups--men, women, Protestants, Catholics, the very religious, liberals, moderates, conservatives--for withdrawing life-sustaining systems at the request of the terminally ill.

“Every individual is responsible for his or her own life,” said William Bracken, 53, of Costa Mesa, “and if a person is competent and he or she decides that they don’t want to stick around and endure further pain much longer, I couldn’t argue the point.”

Bracken, who described himself as a Protestant, said he voted against Proposition 161 because he “didn’t think it was a good law.”

The Times Poll also explored the beliefs of county residents--young and old--about suicide, religion, politics and such issues as providing health care for all by limiting costly medical services for the elderly.

The poll found that most believe that the nation’s young people have more pressing problems than the elderly.

Fully 55% of those countywide --and 56% of the seniors--say the younger generation is more burdened, while only 27% say elderly people have more pressing problems.

Jesse Reisman, 21, a senior in journalism at Cal State Fullerton, said young people are saddled with worries that the elderly never had.

“We have to worry about AIDS, the (contracting) job market, the unstable world situation and the fact that we’re going to be the first generation to do worse than our parents,” said Reisman, of Anaheim Hills. “Older folks may have problems, but (these) don’t stare them in the face like they do young people.”

Perhaps reflecting those added worries, 20% of the youngest adults (age 18 to 29) and one in four of the Baby Boomers (age 30 to 44) have considered suicide. Just one in eight seniors have contemplated suicide at some time in their much longer lives.

The poll also offers a comparative look at the religious and political feelings of the county and its seniors.

Among county residents as a whole, about 43% were raised Protestant, 32% grew up Catholic, 8% in another Christian religion, with 9% listing other religions and 7% no religion. Among seniors, a far greater number, 63%, grew up Protestant and 23% were raised Catholic; no other category topped 4%.

Ideologically, 39% of county residents are conservative, while 28% call themselves liberals and 28% say they are “middle of the road.” Some 42% of seniors identify themselves as conservative, with 31% middle of the road and 17% liberal, according to the poll.

Seniors and non-seniors alike are divided on an issue that is on the front burner nationally: health care triage for the elderly.

Asked if they would favor a health care system that “guaranteed basic health care coverage to all” Americans if it meant limiting access by the elderly to “costly life-prolonging procedures such as heart bypasses and kidney dialysis,” 48% of county residents under age 60 like the idea, compared to 39% who dislike it.

The elderly are almost evenly divided, with 41% in favor and 40% opposed. And among seniors ages 70 or older--those most likely to be affected by such a plan--47% favor it, while 35% disagree.

John Jaeckle, 69, a retired Fullerton businessman, is among those who support health care triage for the elderly.

Jaeckle has suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for the last 24 years and would expect to be affected by such an arrangement.

But Jaeckle, who has four children and five grandchildren, said he preferred that limited funds in any national health care program be spent on the younger generation.

“It’s not a joyous thing, but there is a time when you have to say goodby,” Jaeckle said. “I don’t believe in spending half a million dollars on old people like myself in my last years.”

Spending limited health care dollars on the elderly is “like taking an antique car and trying to get it in working condition,” Jaeckle added. “I think it’s foolish to spend money that could be spent on my grandchildren when I may die in a few years anyway.”

Jaeckle’s comments about dying suggest a more accepting attitude toward death among the elderly than among the younger set, and such an attitude is reflected in the poll.

Fewer seniors (44%) than those age 18 to 59 (57%) say they would want to live to be 100 years. And just 8% of the elderly say they are afraid to die, compared to 21% of the youngest adults.

C. Ronald Koons, a Laguna Hills physician who treats cancer patients, said he has seen how elderly people are more willing to accept dying when life becomes miserable. “Younger people are generally more sad and they talk about how there’s a lot of living they haven’t done,” Koons said. “But some old (folks) say to me: ‘Why even bother to treat me, Dr. Koons?’ They’ve made their contributions to society, and they’re ready to go.”