Linda Fleming, a 66 year old woman with terminal cancer has become the first person to die with dignity under Washington state’s new assisted suicide law, Death with Dignity, which took effect in March. Fleming died at home with her family, her dog, and her physician at her bedside after taking a lethal dose of prescribed drugs.

The new law was approved last November with nearly 60% of the vote in favor of passing the assisted suicide law. Under the law, in order to end your life you must be at least 18 years of age, declared competent, and be a state resident. Two doctors would have to certify if the patient has a terminal condition and six months or less to live. The patient must make two oral requests for the procedure, 15 days apart, and make a written request witnessed by two people.

For physicians and pharmacists who are opposed to the law, they are not required to write or fill lethal prescriptions and even some hospitals have opted out of the law, which precludes their doctors from participating on hospital property.

Assisted suicide has been a controversial topic for many generations, but it is great to see a state that is giving its citizens a way to have control over their own fates; someone who has less than six months to live and who is suffering astronomical amounts of pain due to their illness, I believe, has every right to die in a manner that they see fit. We see a great deal of cases where patients are in too much pain than they can handle and who want to die; the least we can do is give them a compassionate and dignified way out.

What do you think? Do you want to see other states introduce assisted suicide laws?

China has recently banned actors and any “non-accredited personnel” from appearing in advertisements for drugs. This recent ban is part of China’s broadcast watchdog, the State Administration of Radio Film and Television’s agenda to clean up the country’s famous advertising industry that has been an ongoing battle in recent years.

Fake drug and food quality scandals are plaguing the country and this specific ban went into effect after numerous scandals broke out over the past two months regarding the health of Chinese people in several provinces due to fake drugs marketed by non-professional medicinal personnel.

A Chinese internet user late last month exposed 12 fake “experts” selling medicine under various disguises and named on television stations in Shandong province which sparked an online uproar over false endorsements. Earlier this month Chinese police arrested at least five people in connection with a fake diabetic drug linked to the deaths of at least two people and sold to thousands of patrons in several provinces. China has also sentenced two men to death for their role in making and selling milk tainted with melamine (an industrial compound) where at least six children died and nearly 300,000 people fell ill after drinking toxic dairy products last year.

The specifics of China’s new ban includes that non-accredited personnel would be banned from such advertisements and other health programs carried on television and further breaches would see advertisers and companies’ advertising licenses revoked and “temporary suspensions of sales for their medicinal products.”

The Senate approved a bill to expand and reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program in a 66 to 32 vote and President Obama plans to sign this legislation into effect. The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) provides health insurance to children from low-income families who cannot afford private health care but do not qualify for federal Medicaid. SCHIP currently provides health insurance to more than 7 million children and passage of this legislation expands the program to cover 4 million more children, including for legal immigrants.

In the most blatant of terms, SCHIP provides health insurance to children of families who are stuck in the middle–Not poor enough to be considered for federal insurance, but too poor to even think of the possibility of purchasing insurance from private and major companies. It has been an unfortunate situation, to say the least, to exist in the middle of the spectrum as far as income goes, so often putting families in damned if you do, damned if you don’t positions.

According to the New York Times, the SCHIP Expansion Bill is a version of the same bill that was vetoed twice by ex-President Bush.