This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE    3/29/05

            It is inevitable!

            We can ignore it, pretend it will never happen, but it will.

            I’m talking about that unmentionable subject…..death.

            Unfortunately, every one of us is going to die….sometime.

            It may seem gruesome even to talk about it, but that’s all the news media have been talking about for the past several weeks.

            The Terri Schiavo case has dominated the news coverage over such other events as the organization of a government in Iraq, the Jackson case and a number of other issues.

            One thing certain…..it has served as a reminder…..especially to those of us of the elderly populace…..that it is important to consider how you might want to depart this vail of smiles and sometimes tears.

            I guess it is time to ask oneself what kind of situation would you not want to happen when your time of departure arrives.

            Living Wills are the talk of the times….right now.

            When you’re in your teens or thirties or forties….it seems a subject that you’d rather not face……maybe someday.

            But the current struggle over the future of a woman who has been declared in a permanent vegetative state and yet is in only middle age urges the necessity of all of us to take a look at a living will.

            Fortunately, I do have such a living will….as does my wife.    After all….we are in our 80s, although we executed such wills a number of years ago.

            We note a recent story in the Herald and News that indicates that Tom Hottman, Medical center spokesman for the Merle West Hospital  has said that information on the three phases are available at the hospital.   He classified the three means of insuring your wishes are the living will, an advance directive and a health care power of attorney.

            Local people can take advantage of the information.

            As far as the Schiavo case, it was certainly an unusual, if not unconstitutional, move to craft a bill designed for just one person.  Critics maintain that the feds action certainly overrides the state’s rights and they do have a case, but it will remain to be seen what the long range produces.

            The issue, however, should be a warning to the rest of us to clearly express our future health wishes in the event that we do become incapacitated in one way or another to the point where we can no long declare our individual wishes.

            With that….I’ll close this somewhat gruesome subject.

            This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.