71.   Dr. Lynn said the Support study showed how very difficult it could be for doctors to decide how long a seriously ill patient would live.

72.   Dr. Weeks and other doctors agreed that they often have trouble telling terminally ill patients the truth.

73.   Earlier this month, voters in Oregon approved a law that permitted doctors to prescribe lethal medication for terminally ill patients.

74.   Even if the competence of a mentally ill patient were not an issue, some consent forms clearly fail to fully disclose the risks and goals of the research.

75.   Federal officials sent a stern warning to agencies Tuesday not to drop ill patients from their rolls.

76.   Federal authorities need to address concerns that a legitimate treatment for seriously ill patients is being blocked because of broader fears of marijuana abuse.

77.   For years, terminally ill patients suffered needlessly because doctors resisted prescribing frequent, potent doses of narcotics, fearing that patients might become addicted.

78.   For instance, it speculated, perhaps in some cases physicians did not want to give chronically ill patients too many medications for fear of side effects.

79.   For instance, the most severely depressed patients were twice as likely to have considered suicide as all terminally ill patients.

80.   Gordon followed them on their daily rounds, talked with them about their concerns, and sat by as they tended to terminally ill patients.