The Cost Of Dying (recap of 60 minutes

[dtotire]

Interesting


http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5737138n&tag=nl.e882

[FormerDittoHead]

1. My brother, a doctor, told me about this 15 years ago...

He said, "We'd really be able to cut costs if we could just let someone die without spending at least $150,000..."

[HereSince1628]

2. End of life transfer of wealth is a standard of American capitalism

What's the point to having all that technological capacity if no one will pay for it?????????????

Foreclosing this part of the ponzi scheme that is the American medical establishment is why so many old farts have advanced directives and make sure that their children know their intentions.

A recent article in the Milwaukee Journal suggested that end-of-life hospital expenses for the average cheesehead are $17K give or take 3K.

[Xenotime]

3. We treat animals better than we do these people..

If a dog is suffering and uncomfortable we have them put down and put them at peace. Americans really need to rethink their aggressive stance towards draining the economy by not accepting reality.

[fasttense]

4. And if its you there dying, do you really want someone deciding it's too expensive to keep you alive...

Yeah, they are old but they are not rabid dogs to put down when they cost too much. I find all this focus on the cost of keeping people alive to be seriously inhumane.

Do you get to decide if I live or die at 70 or 80? Or should I decide if you're too old and too expensive to save?

Is money going to determine how we live and die even up to the bitter end?

What about raging at the dying of the light? Shouldn't everyone be given the opportunity to live to their own end and not be considered just another commodity to throw away when they become too expensive?

This is seriously heartless.

[bettyellen]

5. a friend saw this report and did not come away upset at the costs, but that they were being incurred

totally wrongheaded. if it was her mom. she'd think twice.

[enlightenment]

6. Answered your own question.

Shouldn't everyone be given the opportunity to live to their own end and not be considered just another commodity to throw away. . .

Living to one's 'own end' implies allowing nature to take it's course. What is at issue here is the extra-ordinary (and I write the word that way to focus on the 'extra' part) measures that are taken to prolong the end of life.

If someone is kept alive by virtue of a ventilator because their heart and lungs would fail without that support, is that allowing that person to come to their 'own end' - or is it unnaturally prolonging that end?

Money does determine how we live and die in this country - insurance companies make that decision every single day. It is FAR from heartless to bring the discussion around not just to 'quality of life' but also 'quality of death' issues. Most people, especially the very elderly, fear death - many fear the thought that they will be kept 'alive' long past any meaning, because of well-intentioned doctors and family members who cannot face losing them.