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>I've "run into this" with so many family members also. I am wondering what they have read or watched over the last 20 years (it seems) that has changed so many of their minds SO much

My father passed on
a few months ago. Before
he died, he was ill

for three or four years.
I got to see in detail
how our medical

system treated him,
and other seniors I met
at his hospital.

It was terrible.
There are endless painful tests,
and throughout it all

people are treated
like machines -- opened up and
closed, parts removed, and

inside systems get
routed outside the body . . .
After a few years

of this, my father
had a long conversation
with his physician,

signed a DNR,
and also insisted no
"catastrophic care"

be used to save him.
I tried to reason with him,
but since I'd witnessed

the way today's care
kept people alive, I felt
torn with every word --

I wanted my dad
to live, but was grief-stricken
seeing him suffer.

I want to live, too,
but our medical system
reduces people

to meat machines, and
that amounts to chronic pain,
chronic medicine

and it amounts to
a daily life turned into
endless days of pain.

After seeing this
in dozens of seniors, I
know why they choose death --

They're not choosing death
per se, rather they're choosing
natural death, not

unnatural life.
The issue isn't clear cut
the way I once thought.

It IS horrible, I agree with you, the way things are IN SOME PLACES WITH SOME HEALTHCARE WORKERS, I know also, I have stories also, BUT 2 wrongs never make a right and their serving you up something wrong should not force your hand to do something you never intended, like die early!!!. They WOULD have you believe there is NO other option, basically my way or the high way, they perhaps would have you believe but - That is the way libs do things also, break a system that WAS operating fine (ie health care in 70s and 80s) so as to reign in their socialized medicine that is dispersed, as if one is at a state office handing out butter, boy you better be grateful and full of a guilt ridden, boy are we doing you a favor.

It is not so much WHAT they are doing that makes it all so difficult and unbearable. It is HOW they are doing. No one (workers) seems to want to be in these hospitals, nurses, techs, etc. When someone does come into a room that actually does like people and serving them it is like a most unbelievable ray of sunshine that can sustain you for quite awhile while undergoing this wretchedness.

However, we can't throw out the baby with the bath water. You can't go anywhere these days without bumping into alot of people who have bad attitudes and do not want to serve and are basically very selfish, of course you will find it in the hospital and health care. It's the cultural personality at this time in history, not the actual tests, procedures, treatments etc that are so wretched. The things we are able to do now, the technology, it is a miracle, a blessing - when it is not misused and abused.

Again, you can not throw it all out because there is some bad. Family members no matter what age must be watched by other family members (in the medical know) constantly!! They will try to shove drugs in you that you don't need. They will try to do tests that are not needed to run the bill up! No news - greed exists. I agree, one should get out of some of these h*ll holes as quick as possible to spare any more patient abuse but not at the expense of life.