Finally, we need to get the practitioners of modern medicine to recognize an age-old reality: there is no cure for old age itself. Maybe someday we’ll be able to 3-D print a new body and have the data in our brain downloaded to it. But for the time being, when the body begins to break down systemically, we should let nature take its course.
“But for the time being, when the body begins to break down systemically, we should let nature take its course.”
Easy to say when it’s someone else. I bet the author would demand “do everything you can. I want the best” if it were him.
Much easier said than done, because it conflicts with our Judaeo-Christian values. But I do see where you're coming from. My mother, for example, is 91 years old and suffers from senile dementia, but not to the point where she isn't cognizant of herself, her family and her surroundings. The problem is that her condition prevents her doing anything that could give meaning to her continued existence. It's not for me to say that she would be better off removed from life, and to even think it causes me incredible feelings of selfishness and guilt. Meanwhile, the medical profession goes to every extremity to keep her alive, and I do not think it within the strictures of my moral beliefs to keep them from doing so.
It's a quandary. There are no simple answers.