Remember, patients are usually required to give up standard treatment for their terminal disease in order to enroll.

FORBES: Learning the Right Lessons from Hospice

They should receive the best care possible, including palliative treatment, a dimension of terminal care that is often scandalously neglected: and this in turn will require, in America, a proper effort to extend health coverage to the uninsured.

ECONOMIST: The right to choose to die

Now, as a society, we must pressure the medical community to ensure that everyone with a terminal illness benefits from better, more progressive treatment to alleviate pain.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

Dr Jose Rafael Marquina, a Venezuelan based in Miami, repeatedly predicted that Mr Chavez's illness would prove terminal, providing detailed accounts of what he said was the president's course of treatment.

BBC: Hugo Chavez leaves Venezuela in economic muddle