This was before abortion was in full force. Our patients were the most pitiful bits of helpless humanity imaginable. Some, into their 'teens, were no larger than babies.
Because every ward was a "hospital" ward, they didn't come to ICU until they were terminally ill. Every patient was treated with compassion and mercy as if they were our own babies. The doctors hovered over them like mother hens. No one ever was denied fluids or nurishment until they passed.
This mercinary attitude towards dying family members is unspeakably evil. That medical people have come to be so unmerciful is wicked beyond words.
Be careful about signing away your rights to be treated mercifully until you've spent a few days without food and water. With morphine, thirst becomes intensified. Think about yourself in that bed, no longer allowed to speak for yourself.
In the end, this attitude makes us all a little less human. There are incredibly rich and wonderful life lessons to be gained by being the caregiver to someone you love in their greatest extremity.
Thanks for posting your experience; mine was on the other end of the age spectrum but was the same: all were treated with care and compassion.
This story showcases an unspeakably evil and inhuman, never mind inhumane, attitude.