Nope, it is the right document.
Here is the pdf:
rihlp.org
Consider the questionnaire on page 23 of the pdf -- "What makes your life worth living?"
The respondent has the following choices for each question:
- difficult, but acceptable
- worth living, but just barely
- not worth living
- can't answer now
These are possible responses to various problems, like being confined to a wheelchair, etc.
The older people I've known, up to the point of death, have mostly understood their circumstances and would not have answered any of these questions with one of these answers. My mom, who had really severe COPD and lived with it for a long time, would never have lodged one of these complaints about here life, no matter how bad it got (my father-in-law, a different personality, demanded we deliver his handguns to the nursing home, however).
Then, if follows up with --
"If you checked 'worth living, but just barely' for more than one factor, would a combination of these factors make your life 'not worth living?'"
"If you checked 'not worth living,' does this mean that you would rather die than be kept alive?"
I mean, really. I'll agree the bias could be interpreted as subtle, but I get the idea you have a background in statistics, and I don't believe you'd word a survey like this unless you were trying to get a particular response.
Is it as big a deal as the DrudgeReport made it out to be? Nope. But it really could push some people toward conclusions I'm not sure they would make without the bias. |
