Ageing, indebted Japan debates right to 'die with dignity'

Tokyo

RETIRED Japanese airline employee Tarou Tanzawa said that he hadn't thought much about his own death until his 84-year-old mother was diagnosed with malignant lymphoma and decided against costly and invasive life-prolonging treatment.

He watched his mother die peacefully at a nursing home where she received only palliative care after checking out of the hospital where she was diagnosed.