“Deserving to die with dignity”

Almost each and every day I see how dealing with the end of life for our loved ones turns us into selfish people, sometimes rendering us incapable of making a rational decision. There are many reasons that we choose to keep our loved ones alive by artificial means. It may be because of the guilt we feel for not visiting, or maybe the reason lies shallower, such as for money. Whatever the reason for our selfishness, each day I find that we can prove to be some of the most morally wrong people that all of us would hate if we saw someone else do the same to their loved ones.

I have to ask a question, is it ok that we keep our 98 year old mother alive on a ventilator with a feeding tube with no way to talk, eat, move, and think? Is it ok that we put this same person into surgery, or worse yet, if our body does give up, beat on our chest in a futile attempt to keep us alive for another maybe year? No. There has to come a time that we as people are ok with letting our loved ones live out their last days with dignity and compassion. Why do we let this go on in our hospitals? Why is it ok that we keep these people alive by artificial means? This is because there is no one that is willing to talk to families about the quality of life their loved one will have and no doctor is willing to tell a family that what they are doing is wrong, wasting money that may be used for someone who can be helped, someone that can be saved, someone with a future.

One way all of this can be avoided is by letting our family and loved ones know how we would like our life to end. Let them know just how far to go and what measure to take that may extend life that has no quality. We can also make living wills so that there is no question just what we would like to have done. Would we want to live out our days in a bed on a ventilator, a feeding tube, all kinds of drips hanging from our bodies, and if our body does give out, having someone pound on our chest to keep us alive for more dying?

Also, have we ever considered the cost of keeping that loved one alive? Who pays for this? The cost of keeping a heart going that is 90 years old with no chance of any type of quality is not cheap. That is because after insurance stops paying the hospitals must absorb the rest, causing the failing of our health care system. End of life is one thing that has our system in shambles, with hospitals having to cut costs so that a person with a chance of bouncing back from an illness may not get their chance because we were too selfish with someone that wanted to be let go.