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Long before a stroke disabled her right side and a subsequent fall rendered her comatose, Maxine Cail created a living will that stipulated no heroic medical interventions, no feeding tubes, no respirators. As she drifted in and out of a coma, her husband, John Cail, and his sons called Alive Hospice
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Medical technology increasingly blurs the lines between life and death, said Stuart Finder, senior associate director for the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. And, when a controversial case grabs the public's attention, it changes how everyone talks about death and dying. Terri Schiavo, for example, was a turning point, with people debating whether keeping her alive in a vegetative state was cruel or if removing her feeding tube and letting her die was murder.
How we die has changed... Hospice eases the way as decisions grow more complicated
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For one thing, the romance of modern medical care has continued to give way to growing preferences for holistic treatments and solutions that are more humane. Also, the recent case of Terri Schiavo, the anticipation leading up to the death of Pope John Paul II, as well as popular books such as Tuesdays With Morrie have aroused considerable interest and provoked public introspection about the sanctity of life as well as the freedom to decide how and when to die.
When medical miracle doesn't come, embrace hospice care
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