A Matter of Life and Death

My grandfather is in hospice care (“The End in Two Acts,” by Lauren Kessler, March 11). At almost 98 years of age, he has had a good life. He has been bedridden since the beginning of this year and was given a dire prognosis due to kidney failure. On top of that he has dementia. There are days when he is not lucid enough to know what’s going on around him. However, on days when he’s lucid, he will often tell me that he wants the doctor to give him a shot so he can die. Until there is a law that allows one to control one’s own death (besides in Oregon), there will be countless people like me who live in anguish, watching loved ones being eaten away by their terminal illness without a shred of hope to ease their pain.

Anita Lau-McElvane

Irvine