I really liked this surgeon’s view on death.
I think that our society’s rush to keep every person alive no matter what the cost is actually a terrible decision. When you have individual cell’s in your body that do anything they can to survive, that’s called “Cancer”.
Think about it this way: a ten year old who breaks his leg is something absolutely worth treating and helping to recover – he will be valuable to society for 70 more years and fixing a broken leg costs under $5,000. A 85 year old who gets heart disease should NOT receive a heart transplant… at best the heart might extend his life another year or two and this could cost over $1,000,000.
As a society, we need to get much smarter about how we view death. Allowing someone to waste enormous resources staying alive is ridiculous.
Here are a couple of my favorite comments from this article:
“John E Murray Salem, MA
I am starting to look askance at my cardiologist when he suggests that ” . . . you will need a aeortic valve replacement in a couple of years.” I am 83 in relatively good health. Will I still be alive in a couple of years? How traumatic will the replacement surgery be? How many more years will it afford me? How much will it cost my insurers? What life experiences will a few more years of life yield to me that I haven’t already experienced? Isn’t it time to simply “let go”? When he suggests that it is time to schedule the replacement surgery will I have the courage to say “Thanks, but no thanks”? This article is helping me to decide.”
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Betty North Port, FL
All I know is that I hope I’ll have the wherewithal to pop my supply of Seconal when I am no longer a positive contributor to society. My biggest fear is outliving my welcome, drooling in a nursing home warehouse, where nobody knows my name, including me. “Give me liberty or give me death”, has a new meaning as we age.”