Someone has to pay for care, someone has to decide. The 80-year-old should have a will, if not, the closest relative decides.
We cannot place every old person in stasis until the power fails or eternity arrives. We are supposed to die sometime - not worship the almost dead.
All that medical care could be used in Africa where children are dying.
Donna, I read all of your posts, and you can speak for me on this issue! The above is the only exception. Plenty of kids in America who could use the money.
Honestly, people live in a strange ether that only factor appeals to the heart. It is not affordable for everybody, and that is a grim truth. Quite frankly, we could cut down on a whole lot of Medicare expenditures such that at the time that people are clearly in the dying process, instead of taking directions from their guilt-ridden families, if we allowed the process to proceed gracefully and with dignity - which is almost invariably what every elderly person wants done if they are given the opportunity to declare these wishes prior to the event. Alternatively, if you want to sustain Uncle Jim on life-sustaining mechanical ventilation, artificial nutrition, and dysrhythmics, be our guest, and the bill goes directly to you starting NOW. Often the dirt-throwing, teeth-gnashing disappears when people find out that they might be held accountable for the U-turns they demand (which are often for less than honorable reasons). Consistent with this, many who only read biased reports, eagerly take up the issue to beat their Tom-Tom; but pin them down on who is footing the bill, and who is the central figure proposing the unnatural direction, and light will start shimmering through the cracks.
“All that medical care could be used in Africa where children are dying.”
Oh, really? Well, I’ll tell you what: If I have to make a choice between taking care of my wife and some kids I don’t know, and for whom I have no attachment, the kids will get the short shrift.