Dignity

When I think of actress Lupe Ontiveros, who passed away from liver cancer at 69 Thursday night, what stays with me most is her strength. Her women tended to be strong and resilient, no-nonsense types, whether they were running a theater company as she did in "Chuck & Buck," dealing with a rebellious daughter in "Real Women Have Curves," or picking up after some well-heeled white family, as she did in"The Goonies. "There was a "I have seen it all" quality that danced in her eyes, more bemused by the frailties of the human race than bitter about them.

Does Vermont's death with dignity legislation, signed into law Monday, make it any more likely that California can now move in the same direction? Yes and no. There's no active effort under way in California to make it legal for doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients at their request. But Kathryn Tucker, the Compassion & Choices legal director who testified before the Vermont Legislature in support of death with dignity, said she's encouraged by growing support for the idea that dying patients should have the right to avoid needless suffering.

For Martin O'Malley, the fight to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland came down to one word: dignity. Maryland's Democratic governor will sign legislation Thursday making his state the eighth in the nation to allow gay couples to marry, one week after the measure narrowly cleared the state Legislature. O'Malley's signature won't change anything immediately. Even as he is set to sign the law, opponents are in the midst of a petition drive to force a statewide referendum this fall, and the new law would not take effect until January, after the referendum date in November.

With the strokes from three gubernatorial pens, Vermont on Monday became the fourth state in the country to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medication to terminally ill patients. Gov. Peter Shumlin signed the measure in a state House ceremony in Montpelier, capping a decade-long effort on the issue in Vermont. Vermont is the first state to pass such a law through the legislative process. Oregon and Washington enacted their laws by referendum; in Montana, it was legalized by the courts.

Thank you for doing your two-part series on "Trying to Permit Dying With Comfort and Dignity" (Oct. 15, 16), a valuable examination of a topic that needs a great deal of public exposure. However, I was disturbed by one portion of the articles: the implication that end-of-life care is often less pain-free, less comfortable and dignified in the confines of a hospital setting. This was certainly not my recent experience at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills, where my husband died.

Re "'Barbaric' death, and a plea," Column, Aug. 5 Steve Lopez gives us another painful example of man's inhumanity to man. It's a shame California can't join Oregon, Washington and Montana in legalizing a more civilized and humane manner for ending our lives. As Lopez points out, progress is hindered mostly by religious organizations, primarily the Roman Catholic Church. The idea that suffering is noble is almost solely a religious contention, and when inflicted on everybody, it involves a clear violation of our Constitution's separation of church and state.

Though it was not his first film or even his breakthrough -- he'd already had that three years earlier with "Dirty Dancing" -- my favorite memory of Patrick Swayze came in 1990 with the romantic thriller "Ghost" with Demi Moore: He played a man whose love was so strong that, despite being gunned down in the street, he refused to leave this life until he knew she was safe. Like countless other women around the country, I suddenly wanted to buy a potter's wheel, slip into a guy's oversized white shirt and work with clay, the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" playing in the background.

CARTAGENA, Colombia -- President Obama said Sunday he would be angry if an internal investigation showed that Secret Service personnel were involved in misconduct while in Colombia because he expected his delegation to act with the "utmost in dignity and probity. " But as he closed a weekend meeting here with world leaders, Obama said he would wait until the investigation was done before passing judgment on the agents and officers, part of a team that he said performed "extraordinary work on a day-to-day basis protecting me, my family and U.S. officials.

His hands thick, the color of pewter, he bends steel rods in the city dust. "It's different being an Egyptian after the revolution," says Mohammed Mahmoud, sweating at the edge of a construction site. A boy laborer nods. A flash of metal brightens the dirt. "We gained our dignity back. " The revolts shaking North Africa and the Middle East are about many things, but the most potent is a yearning for respect after decades of repression and promises betrayed. Men like Mahmoud don't see the world in ideologies; they want to draw their pay and build their dreams.

It is laughable that when in Israel, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks about tolerance and human dignity (May 3), while at home in California he continues to pick on the most vulnerable members of our society -- the poor and disabled. If one is interested in really seeing what type of person Schwarzenegger is, take a good, hard look at his workers' compensation bill. It decimates the injured worker while guaranteeing even greater profits for the billion-dollar insurance industry, and even at the expense of California employers.

Chrissy Amphlett, lead singer of the Australian rock band the Divinyls, died Saturday in New York after a long battle with breast cancer, according to the Associated Press. She was 53. The Divinyls hit big at home in the '80s and '90s with four Top 10 albums, one of which, “Divinyls,” reached No. 15 in the U.S. on the strength of the group's breakout single “I Touch Myself,” which went to No. 4 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1991. Amphlett revealed in 2010 that she had breast cancer and that because she also had multiple sclerosis she would be unable to go through radiation treatment normally given to treat breast cancer.

A majority of Americans support the idea of allowing terminally ill patients to end their lives with the help of their doctors. For instance, 55% of people questioned for the NPR -Truven Health Analytics Health Poll last  year said they were in favor of legalizing physician-assisted suicide. A BBC World News America/Harris Poll from the year before found that 58% believed that physician-assisted suicide should be a legal option for patients who request it. It's one thing to endorse physician-assisted suicide in principle.

DENVER - As the manhunt expanded Wednesday for the killer of Tom Clements, Colorado's top corrections official, shock and sadness spread across the nation for the loss of what many called a true innovator in how prisons should work. "What Tom brought was a completely different perspective," said a shaken Doug Wilson, Colorado's state public defender, who had frequently worked with Clements. "He wasn't a cop. He was a man who cared not only for those he worked with, but he treated inmates with respect and dignity.

Even a conservative who ordinarily doesn't care much for government regulation of business ought to find the case for a government-mandated minimum wage pretty compelling. In brief: As a conservative, you believe in the dignity of work. And it sends a terrible message about the dignity of work when working full time does not earn you enough to live a decent life. On the other hand, even a committed liberal who is concerned about growing income inequality ought to have some doubts about the minimum wage.

Last week, the leak of an internal memo revealed that the Associated Press advised its writers "generally" to call legally married gay spouses "partner" instead of "husband" or "wife. " NOTE TO READERS: Since this Op-Ed article was posted on February 21, the Associated Press changed its ruling on the use of "husband" and "wife. " Find an updated version of Nathaniel Frank's article here . The massive news agency, which sets the standard for many journalists worldwide, has it wrong; the default should be just what it is for straight married couples: "husband" and "wife.

With home prices rising, interest rates falling and builders building, some prominent housing advocates are calling for a new kind of loan for buyers with lower incomes or bad credit. They'd like to call it the Dignity Mortgage, but it has another name -- one that's become more of an epithet since the housing crash: subprime. Applicants might include people caught in the early stages of the mortgage meltdown who have since rebuilt their finances, said Faith Bautista, who heads the National Asian American Coalition.

A very pregnant Brenda Smith and two of her seven children trudge along Broadway in South Los Angeles beneath a mercilessly hot sun. Smith has just finished the grocery shopping. She stops every few steps to readjust an unwieldy armload of bags. A gallon jug of red punch comes from a meat market at Broadway and 91st Street because red punch is cheapest there. She gets milk from a liquor store two blocks away for the same reason.

Re "CBS Draws Fire for Airing Clips of Rapist's Videos," Feb. 20: Prime-time television has become little more than prime-time trash. Its purpose is to show as much sexual exploitation as possible (mostly of girls and women) so that people get so used to the elimination of human dignity they no longer question it. Julia Huntsman Long Beach

Inside the grubby brown paper lunch bag was a red leather Gucci wallet that contained a checkbook, credit cards, a $50 check to a church, a St. Joseph holy card and a $2,500 payroll check. "I thought someone might need this to make their mortgage payment," Ernie said as he handed me the bag with its unlikely contents. The irony is that Ernie is a homeless man who sleeps on the streets of skid row and he was worried about the checkbook owners, who had a house in fashionable La Cañada.

The bullet that Larry Robert Broman used to kill himself went clean through his head and into the wall. No one had expected him to do it. Not his ex-wife, who had remained close to him. And not their two grown daughters. It happened early on the morning of Oct. 21. "I heard a noise and ran down the hall," said his oldest daughter, Heather O'Hara, who forced her way into the back bedroom of her Riverside home, where she'd been caring for her terminally ill father. "His hands went limp.