1909 law gives control to dying

Thank you for the excellent article on the 1909 law on aid-in-dying ("Doctor says 1909 law allows assisted suicide," Star-Advertiser, Oct. 23). According to Merriam-Webster, "a remedy is a medicine that provides relief or cure."

Today, palliative medicine is about providing comfort and relief from pain.Often the suffering cannot be relieved except by either death or deep sleep maintained until death. Alternatively, by providing a lethal prescription of sleeping pills, doctors enable their patients to self-sedate if they endure unbearable pain. The hope is that they will never have to use the prescription.

Last year in Oregon, a full 40 percent of these prescriptionswent unused.Those unfilled prescriptions fulfilled their intended purpose: Granting patients control over suffering and relieving their terminal anxiety. Dr. Robert Nathanson’s primary intention is to relieve suffering and toxic anxiety, not to kill the patient.

Robert Orfali
Honolulu

Physician-aided suicide wrong

I am an experienced caregiver to elderly, disabled and seriously/terminally ill patients. Suicide activist and physician Robert Nathanson is preying on the very people who need us most.

We must not become complacent in vital matters that would allow a small minority of euthanasia advocates to infringe upon our right to life. Rather than believing the lie that we somehow "need" to institutionalize death by prescription, let’s get with it and begin sharing our unique gift of aloha with those in need.

Janet Grace
Waikiki

GOP filibuster blocked bill

Tom Kenney Sr. wrote that President Barack Obama was not "able to get his own party to vote as a majority" to pass the American Job Act and the reporting of it was "another perfect example of media bias." Factually, 50 of the 52 Democratic Senators voted for the bill. That is a majority in the president’s party any way you look at it.

Republicans ran a filibuster against the bill, which would have required a supermajority of 60 senators to override the filibuster. If Republicans had voted on the merits of the bill instead of the lockstep party line, the American Jobs Act might be a reality today.

As for the "blatant media bias" Kenney complained about, I think the headline with his letter speaks for itself: "Dems helped kill Obama’s job bill." That is a good example of media bias, considering the facts of the matter.

Kenneth Valentine
Kaneohe

Transit needed for big events

With Honolulu being the center of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference, I think this city needs to come up with a more efficient public transportation system if it wants to be considered as a host for other major events.

In other cities, it is an efficient mix of rail, bus, trolley and taxis to help transport large groups of people from one event to another across town.

I can see this would particularly be useful for major regional sporting events like the Asian Games or Pacific Games in shuttling people from town to central and leeward Oahu, where we have excellent sporting facilities, and back.

When we finally have an efficient transportation system like this in place, only then will Oahu be taken seriously to host other major events.

Shannon Custodio
Honolulu

Use school for senior housing

The Liliuokalani School site in Kaimuki would make an ideal location for affordable senior housing:

» Seniors could walk to a bank, beauty parlor, barber shop, pharmacy, thrift shop, restaurant, coffee house, dentist, lawyer and much more, including a yoga studio as well as the Kaimuki Regional Library and the post office;

» Excellent public transportation is easily available adjoining the site;

» Building infrastructure, open space, parking for staff and guests and a cafeteria already exist; the cafeteria can easily be converted into a social, recreational and learning center for seniors; and

» This housing is needed by a segment of our population who would live, walk, dine, play, shop and explore their community rather than drive through it.

The state Department of Education should not just think of more offices for its staff. In this instance, DOE can help transform downtown Kaimuki into a vibrant and lively place to live, work and play, not only for some of our kupuna, but for all of us.

Tom Dinell
Honolulu

Tea party just a GOP faction

Those who named their group the "tea party" were very clever. Doing so allowed the news media to assist them in making Americans think that they are a bona fide political party.

We read and hear about them every day as if they are a political party, just like the Republicans and Democrats. No one, it seems, takes time to correctly label the tea party as a radical, right-wing faction of the Republican Party.

Keith Haugen
Nuuanu

Future rail costs not addressed

Wesley Shibuya says he understands that the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board will set rail fares at a level that would not require any increase in property taxes or cuts in programs ("Rail-bus fare will help save costs," Star-Advertiser, Letters, Oct. 19).

To recoup the full maintenance and labor costs, the HART board would have to set fares at such a level as to make it unaffordable for most riders.

The purpose of any rail or bus system is to keep prices low enough to encourage people to use the system. That is why our bus charges only 30 percent of actual cost. Approximately 30 percent is what the HART board will probably have to charge against actual cost.

The remainder will be paid probably by an increase in property taxes.

Failure of the mayor and City Council members to be upfront about maintenance and labor costs, and to rule out increases in our property taxes to support rail, are key reasons to oppose rail.

Peter Chisteckoff
Mililani Mauka