Peter laponte

We lost money the first year I was here, but we've made money every year since 1999. I think the board of directors that hired me would be blown away by what we're doing now. I know I'm blown away. We've grown into one of the more lucrative festivals in the state.

I think we were all taken aback by the impact that Peter's illness and death had on the broader organization. As much as we knew Peter was stitched into the fabric of ABC News, I don't think we understood the extent of it.

We took a gamble on Johnson and he dogged it. We risked a lot of money to do it, and he didn't come through. But now Sam Peter is in that situation, too. We've got a lot of other good, young fighters. But Sam Peter is our franchise fighter, a guy who can really turn our company around, and this is the single most important fight we've had since Johnson-Ruiz.

[Dr. Peter Goodwin, an Oregon physician who is an expert on that state's Death with Dignity, which is being challenged by the Bush Administration before the U.S. Supreme Court, presented his own views.] I have treated scores of terminally-ill patients, and not one of them wanted to die. Not one of them wanted to 'kill' themselves, ... These patients wanted to live as long as they could experience life. They did not, however, want to prolong their deaths. As a physician, I resent the term 'physician-assisted suicide.' I have never felt I was assisting a suicidal patient, but rather aiding a patient with his or her end-of-life choice.

It's family, you can do that a little bit.