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Robert Reich, no need to keep old people alive for a few more months and no high techology and drugs for the elderly.
This is the way that it should be. when quality of life is severely diminished, just what is the point of prolonging life to those who are have lived a long, full life and are invalid for all intents and purposes?
I watched my mother die. She was beyond getting well -- one of her last days -- and a young doctor started putting tubes up through her body doing un-necessary tests that was not going to save her or in any way make her life better.
The only ones benefitting from what he was doing were the ones billing Medicare and her insurance.
What they did to my mother is not uncommon.
I saw that doctor after my mother passed away and I was so angry at him I could not even look him in the eye.
No one is talking about death squads. But, in my opinion, dying is part of living and people should be allowed to die with some kind of dignity.
Last edited by World Citizen; 12-20-2009 at 10:09 PM..
This is the way that it should be. when quality of life is severely diminished, just what is the point of prolonging life to those who are have lived a long, full life and are invalid for all intents and purposes?
Well said. I worked in an ER and saw countless people brought from nursing homes that could barely move, some weren't even coherent. I'm betting as the years go on we're going to see more living wills taking care of these issues because people would like some dignity in their final moments, not to be a lab rat for doctors to learn from.
There were some people I knew by name they were sent in so frequently, I'd never seen them move, or utter a word, just a blank stare on their face, but the families would not make them a DNR. These people were in their 90s, Whats the point? 50 years ago, they would have died off, now that we can, we should just preserve the vegetables? I don't mean to sound cruel, but I'm making sure myself, my wife and our families have living wills because all financial matters aside, it is just long undignified suffering that many of these people go through.
It seems like the OP is just trying to feed the paranoia. Well I'll add in some things to what Robert Reich said.
If you want to live longer, make healthier habits, its not hard to walk or ride a bike. Its also not hard to choke down a celery stick instead of McDonalds. We also know all of the problems tabacco causes, not hard to avoid that either. Given those lifestyle changes alone, you can probably outlive your parents. make some personal choices to live healthier, and then when something bad happens, the resources will be there to help instead of already wasted in fixing your bad habits (poor diet, no exercise, smoking)
Young people, it was said you have to pay more, well wake up, just because you're in your 20s doesn't mean you're immune from accidents or needing operations. You also can get sick and infect others, and your irresponsibility is no excuse for spreading disease to others.
and with regards to lack of innovation because of socializing, well we can work around that. Drug companies and medical equipment manufacturers waste way too much money trying to copy one another's products with a slight twist so in the long run, some stockholder or CEO will make millions, while the real brains behind it gets didley squat. Lets cut out the rich middle man. Streamline the government grant process for drug and equipment ideas, and reward the inventors of them. If we want innovation, we don't need to spend millions making 3rd party investors happy, we need to pay our scientists and the real brains behind innovation what they're worth while they develop new products. Letting the private sector control innovation, just results in more versions of viagra and tons of money spent on advertising the "me too" drugs.
Last edited by odinloki1; 12-21-2009 at 12:32 AM..
And you do understand all 2500 pages? Or are you just parroting the naysayers/
And you're okay with any of our elected leaders if they don't read and understand their 2500 page work of art?
Isn't that what we're paying them to do?
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