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Before we suffer in ignorance, thinking this is just the UK - better do some research on the same "patients deemed to be incapable of making decisions in their own "best interests" can have all fluids withheld until they die. The family can do little to stop this process once doctors have made their decision." rules in Texas - and maybe other states.

And you can't yank your relative out of the offending hospital and transfer to another -

This lady went to the hospital for "routine shoulder surgery."

I have personally witnessed patients being put in nursing homes, perfectly sound in mind, and not on any medications, being instantly plied with several meds that resulted in dementia-like symptoms, incontinence, etc...

I had a friend last year who had an aneurysm - and the family, at the advice of the medics, pulled the plug in just 2 days.

The relatively new yardstick for death, called "brain dead" is misleading. Many times, it turns out the brain was just 'resting' while the body healed.

HOWEVER - organ transplants are BIG $$$ and they are most viable when taken from a body whose heart is still beating. Indeed, many organs are not suitable for transplant once the heard stops beating. The criteria for death, has, since the world began, until the advent on transplants, been - when the heart stops beating.

I wouldn't want to be kept alive indefinitely on machines = but neither would I want to be looked at as a big chunk of money ready to harvest.

Pray to stay well until you just, one day, fall asleep and don't wake up.