- December 4, 2025
Dear Editor:
My daughter, an ICU nurse for 38 years, told me that 50% of the money spent on healthcare is in the last two years of life. An MD friend further clarified that 50% of that money is spent in the last three months.
My question is, how much did these people enjoy that last three months? If you look at the most pitiful patients in our nursing homes or memory care, and ask yourself if you would want to end up like this, what would you say?
Thus, my quest to make Florida allow assisted dying. Controls must be in place including a witnessed legal document / living will that is witnessed by a professional, not a child or other that could have ulterior motives. For those that want to exercise this right, they could document their own conditions such as:
The right to an assisted death is not a mass execution of the elderly. It simply gives every requesting person the right to die on their terms, with less discomfort, and with dignity.
For-profit assisted living/nursing home investors are not emotionally attached to you or your loved ones. Their only attachment is spelled r-e-v-e-n-u-e. Their powerful lobbyists will fight new legislation, but the power of the people can prevail!
I hope that everyone that reads this will call or write our Florida lawmakers and hometown papers and encourage other Floridian friends around the state to do the same. It will take a grass roots effort to make this change in Florida.
Philip Tucker
Palm Coast
