“Individuals, families, medical professionals, and our society’s institutions have a pressing moral duty to reform our failing systems of care for the fragile old and dying. Jane Gross’s excellent book can help us do better on all these fronts.”
I agree that there is something seriously wrong with a system that allows tens of thousands of people to slowly waste away in a nursing home and act as a drain on society.
Ideally everyone ought to be active or at least somewhat active to the end and then die of something quick and relatively painless (naturally; I didn’t say euthanize people). There is absolutely no reason for anybody to suffer a slow, horrible end where their faculties leave them one-by-one.
Unless you are arguing for euthanasia, this is precisely how many people die. I've seen it with both of my parents and my father in law. It is a sad fact of life. All of them had the best medical care possible, but when the body is at the end, there is simply nothing you can do.