Make Decisions

It's never easy facing choices about life and death. But increasing numbers of Americans are encountering the singular anguish of deciding whether to remove life support equipment from a relative or to stop artificially administering the essential nutrients. This month Maryland joined the front ranks of states grappling in a comprehensive way with the choices that face families and with how those choices should be made.Maryland's Health Care Decision Act, which took effect Oct. 1, updates the state's laws on advance directives -- documents that allow people to state in advance their wishes about life-prolonging medical treatment.

Thanks to a new federal law, adult Americans will now get a timely reminder of their rights when they are admitted to health care institutions. The federal Patient Self-Determination Act, which went into effect Dec. 1, stipulates that all patients be told about the provisions their state makes for living wills and other advance directives in case they become unable to make decisions about their own medical care.In recent years, medical technology has rapidly increased the number of tough life-and-death decisions that must be made each day in health care institutions.

Many Carroll County voters have said they want commissioners who will control growth and keep the crime rate low. Last night, the six candidates explained how they would work toward those goals."

On attempts to ban the book 'Twilight' Kathy: That is disturbing. I never restricted our son's reading choices and he usually made good decisions. I just don't understand the people who try to legislate morality. Mobtown Matt: The restriction of resources should come in the home, not the library. More examples of lazy parenting. What's next - banning National Geographic because it depicts bare-breasted tribeswomen? sloagm : The removal of the Twilight series from Deseret Book was not a condemnation of the series, the author or the genre.

Edith decided to put her 67-year-old husband on a ventilator after he suffered a heart attack last year. Two days later, she decided to take him off the artificial life support.He died five days after the ventilator was removed."It's a terrible decision to have to make. I feel for anyone who has to do it," she said during a panel discussion yesterday at Carroll County General Hospital.The woman, a Carroll resident, asked that her real name not be used."Ventilators are powerful machines and are able to maintain life when there is not life," said the Rev. Cliff Webner, pastor at Taylorsville and Salem United Methodist Church.

Governor Schaefer signed Tuesday the Health Care Decisions Act, passed by the General Assembly in its just-concluded session. The new law will take effect on Oct. 1. Maryland's citizens should be aware of its content and implications.The legislation makes Maryland citizens better able to express their desires about their medical care. The law also breaks new ground in allowing citizens to make decisions about the care of family or close friends who can no longer make decisions for themselves and who did not previously express their wishes in writing.

This fall, college students in Massachusetts will be spending time with the usual suspects from the summer of "Survivor": Rich, Kelly, Rudy, Susan and the 12 other visitors to a now-famous island called Pulau Tiga. But the students won't be watching repeats of the hit TV show for fun. It will be homework, part of a professor's quest to explore the human mind. "Survivor" is a bonanza of material about how people interact and make decisions in times of conflict, according to Tom Boone, a professor of psychology at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass.

In a move that can only be perceived as snubbing its nose at Columbia residents, the Columbia Council last week announced the salary increase and bonus it is granting to Columbia Association President Padraic Kennedy. The announcement came less than a week after elections were held for members of the council and the city's village boards. The timing underscores the inexcusable arrogance and detachment council members and association officialshave for residents of the city. It is just one more example of why the pervasive culture of the council and association needs to be eradicated from Columbia governance.

As tempting as it may sound to some voters to have Howard County's most controversial zoning decisions decided by referendum, a recent lawsuit to make that happen is misguided.The attempt by county slow-growth advocates to circumvent the normal process for making zoning decisions would create chaos by opening up what should be a judicial decision based on strict guidelines to the whims of public opinion at the moment. In the end, that would project to the business community the picture of a county without stability.

Making choices can be the biggest stumbling block to success, says Hollywood film executive Marc Platt, because "you want to use your head to make decisions when you should HTC using your heart."It's choices of the heart that, although they are the most difficult to make, are often the most successful and always the most satisfying," says the 35-year-old Baltimore native who became president of TriStar Pictures earlier this year.Mr. Platt spoke to an assembly of nearly 900 students, faculty and friends at his alma mater, Pikesville High School, Friday after receiving the school's annual Distinguished Alumni Award for his accomplishments in the motion picture industry.