I am asking for your help. I want to better understand the death panels that I have been assured are included in the health care reform bills passed by the House and Senate.

My e-mails to members of Congress and to the media-types who talk about death panels have gone unanswered, and I have so many questions.

How large an area will each death panel control? A statewide panel would have many, many sick people who will require a life-or-death decisions. Will there be a death panel in each hospital? This seems to make more sense, who will be on the panel? Doctors? Lawyers? Ordinary citizens? Who will appoint the members? Or will they be elected, like school board members?

If so, I would be interested in serving, my ego is such that I could easily decide which sick persons get medical care and which ones do without. Deciding if a Down syndrome baby, like Sarah Palin's son, is allowed to survive would not be a problem for me.

Will these panels be overseen by the federal government's Health And Human Services Department? Will there be a "Death Panel Czar"? How much money and authority will local panels receive? Could panel members be prosecuted if they supplement their income by taking cash from people who want to live?

I have so many questions, but as you have heard, the bills are quite lengthy. They contain so much detail on so many subjects, I cannot find the answers to my questions. I have tried to search for the term "death panels" without success, I am sure that the authors of the bills came up with some nice-sounding name to keep from scaring people.

Some of you, I am sure, read more columns than I, watch more TV pundits than I, or listen to more talk radio than I, and can tell me exactly where in the House or Senate bill's death panels are explained. I have Web access and I want to see all this for myself. Please, someone e-mail me at bcampb@gbta.net and give me a page number, a section number, anything. I have been assured that it is in the bill. Thank you.

A.B. Campbell

Bison