It is significant that this story is in USA Today's "Money" section because money is certainly a prime mover of the modern euthanasia movement. Though the matter is often replete with distorted euphemisms like "death with dignity," "quality of life," and "prolonging the dying process," it is, in fact, the sheer weight of the expenses of health care for the elderly infirm (as well as young victims of accidents, AIDS, and other debilitating diseases) that often tip the scale in favor of euthanasia for social engineers.
For instance, this story describes how different are the costs of "end-of-life care" in Miami , Florida as opposed to Portland, Oregon. The key factors being (as the writer of the article obviously desires her readers to understand) the more enlightened views of the West Coast about such things as physician-assisted suicide and so-called "futile care."
The author of the article, as I suggested earlier, makes her own opinions pretty clear; namely, that the answer to the "cost containment = care containment" problem is to simply... provide less care. The savings can then be used in better ways -- say, like having government become an ever larger "nanny state" to provide more perks for the rest of us...even those that refuse to work, save and make wise choices.
