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• March 28, 2012 12:03 p.m.

  i think taht technology is changing the world but cant change our lives when its time for me to die it will just be my time to go

  - daytwan

• July 5, 2011 1:26 p.m.

  I have been a caregiver for my 90th year old father for 10 years. two years ago, he decided to quit taking his medications because he could not walk anymore, weak and tired and did not want to continue living without the quality of life he wanted. we just celebrated his 90th birthday today and with very limited drug interaction. we concluded that modern medicines were the culprit with all the adverse side effects. Doctors should not be so quick in thinking that longevity without quality of life is the answer. My dad has a DNR and is happy living out his life without medical intervention, whether medications or surgury. Its in Gods hands.

  - debra

• July 1, 2011 1:46 p.m.

  I think proloning life when there's no quality left to it(lying in a bed until you die hooked up to machines) is cruel and unusual treatment. It's a choice that is between the patient and his/her maker. These religious folk Try to push thier beliefs onto other peoples life situations. They are imoral for pushing thier beliefs on others, even if they believe they are in the right. They need to shut up and tend to their own lives and keep thier noses out of other peoples affairs.

  - Ruth

• June 1, 2011 3:53 p.m.

  Still healthy at 82,I have circulated a living will with a Do Not Resuscitate order. If I become terminally ill or irreversibly unconscious, I don't want my children to face the question of whether or when to pull the plug.

  - Anna

• November 4, 2010 2:46 p.m.

  As a Clinical Manager for a DME that services large populations of Hospices I see increasing utilization of BiPap devices for end of life comfort. It often involves elaborate ambulance transfers for assisted ventilation to achieve the final destination. This patient population frequently expire soon after the transfer or during the process. One wonders what counseling occurred with the patient/significant others to allow them other choices.

  - Susan

• October 30, 2010 3:05 a.m.

  I am Stage IV CA & on my 4th oncologist.The 2nd & 3rd nearly killed me on chemo.NOT WHAT I WANT! I told the 4th doc (who I'm still with) "Quality of life is #1! U can do anything you want to me BUT I don't want to go bald and vomit my guts out!He changed the chemo regimen, I have not gone bald, I have not vomited my guts out, my tumors have gone on inactive status, I have started bike riding again and life is worth living, but had I continued with the other docs I would either be dead or EXTREMELY unhappy to be alive.Technology is greato a point ONLY.Radiation has helped me walk again and bike ride when a year and a half ago I was homebound and bedbound.The drugs and technologies are only as good as the docs who administer them.Truly, there are too many out there that simply don't know what they are doing! Cancer is painful enough w/o incompetents! Good insurance is a MUST because that's the ONLY way you'll be able to change providers fast enough to get help. In the USA..be rich or have good insurance! Seniors should stay on traditional Medicare as their primary insurer w a TRADITIONAL supplement for the gaps. I guess I want to live, but on my terms. I am not sure I know how some people fight cancer and are also sick all the time from the various technologies. I kept getting better all the time even though I was still getting chemo and radiation...fight for the right doc! Easier to fight when u r feeling good-a reason and the WILL to fight 4 ur life - otherwi

  - BARBARA

• August 16, 2010 4:23 a.m.

  I have seen too many "miracles" where people do live past the machines and resume life. Who are we to decide what moment to stop it? Selfish, I believe it is selfish for those around wanting to end a life just so theirs can go on... who is making that choice anyway? Do not tell me I do not know ... I was the one who nodded my head to the doctors to take my Father off his life support and regretted it for years past. Doctors giving up and holding back vital nourishment or oxygen? They said my sis would be gone in 24 hours and took it all away when her heart lost function. That was in 98, she is still sharing her life with her 14 grandchildren today often babysitting and caring for them. I know what my Father wanted, he wanted to live ... I was on my back in pain nearly everyday for two years from 99-2001 ... I kept praying for relief telling God if that was all there was then I did not want to live anymore. He knew better. A healing came and I am very functional and thankful for each day that comes without pain and provides avenues of growth and love... How arrogant and easy it is to decide on another's fate? Do not give me they would want it that way crap .. we don't. We want the doctors to give it their all to the last minute without starving or taking away nutrients to "wait and see" .. they are starving people who might survive given the proper nutrition and ability for the body to fight ...stop assuming, start caring

  - Survivor

• August 15, 2010 11:21 a.m.

  To Kara..reflect on your own key words regarding your mother's condition. End-stage, non-existent quality of life, struggling, constant battles, and mental confusion. What would she want? I know very well the heart wrenching indecision of the POA. First with my son and now for my mother. I wish I had helpful advice but in this life role we are all alone. God bless you.

  - Jane

• August 11, 2010 2:45 p.m.

  My husband is days/hours away from dying. Pancreatic cancer is lethal and one of the most painful;full remission was never expected. His goal was always to 'live his life' as long as he was able, adjusting what 'his life' meant along the way. He always looked for the benefit in life quality to justify the costs of his treatments - the pain, side effects, etc, as well as money. When he found that treatment was more difficult than it was worth, he stopped it. My role was to find information, ask the questions that were too hard for him, discuss pros and cons, but always allow him to make the best decisions for him; and then to support those decisions fully - not always easy. He went through more chemo than I would have. Our goals: discuss everything: treatment options, who should visit, what he'd like done after death. Because we worked hard to discuss everything I know what he wanted, and that he trusts my decisions. Controlling pain was most important. Other treatment was weighed against its possible benefits. Then those benefits were weighed against his goals for his life and his death; eg: he can no longer swallow pills, so we have discontinued his anti-rejection medicines - it's ok if his transplanted kidney fails (transplant completely unrelated to cancer). Our children & I agree and are at peace with everything we have done, and ready for him to die. For us, death is welcome. Using technology to postpone it would be so sad.

  - Mary

• August 9, 2010 9:09 p.m.

  I believe that "extending life" is usually futile and the quality of life is very poor. Unfortunatley extending life is a question of cost since medical care is very expensive. Scientific advancement is far ahead of the ethical decisions we need to make as a society. I ask myself "if one's quality of life is very poor (on machines for instance), then would the money used to keep one alive be better used to help children live healthier lives? For me the answer is that a child should have priority for our scarce health dollars. Health care is rationed in the USA, the poor and the powerless get less care. We need to make the system more fair and less expensive.

  - Stuart

• August 4, 2010 7:22 p.m.

  I had to watch my father pass away from cancer last year. It was a slow and extremely painful death, delivered to a very selfless and caring individual. The fact is that doctors did little to nothing to help him. They administered countless medications to "ease the suffering", but quite frankly, it did little to nothing for him. To the people earlier in this blog that are boasting that "they do not fear death", that they will be ready to "meet their maker", I have some news for you, you are hardwired to fear death. It's a part of your biology. If those feelings somehow do in fact materialize when the inevitable day comes knocking at your door, then I have some news for you, you aren't human. I have to argue on the side of what I'm sure many people will perceive as being impractical. To me, money isn't worth it. Human life far outweighs its value. Yes, the person may be in a vegetative state and yes, it may be completely futile to think that a heart beating with little to no brainwave activity is anything more than "a corpse with a pulse" pardon the slang, but frankly speaking, if that's what it takes for one person to get closure, well.... then in my book, it's worth it. If your concerned about financial practicality, here's an idea, cut the salary of the politicians and the incompetent medical practitioners that pump people full of expensive drugs and administer invasive treatments, and spend that money on educating individuals about h

  - Alex

• August 4, 2010 10:29 a.m.

  I believe there are worse things than dying. I've experienced the denial we sometimes have when a loved one is in the process of dying...we are always hopeful. That said, in our family we believe we are going to a better place, i.e. to be with God, so there is that balancing effect. The best is yet to come. We don't want to be "kept alive" at any cost, thanks very much. There is a sort of break even point, when we need to say our goodbyes, our well-dones, and then let go and move on. It's all part of our experience as humans.

  - Julia

• August 4, 2010 9:31 a.m.

  No one will get out of this world alive. I, personally, am not afraid of death, but I am afraid of dieing. My Do Not Resuscitate order and Living Will are signed to let me go in peace.

  - Roberta

• August 3, 2010 11:28 p.m.

  I want to die, when my time comes, without being hooked up to any machines

  - Diane

• August 3, 2010 11:33 a.m.

  As an RN, over the years I have seen many instances of patients being kept alive through technology and to please family members (who can't let go) when the patient himself was ready to leave this earth. I have not traveled abroad but I often wonder if it's our American "way" that results in this.....as Americans, we "never say die", we "fight to the death", we have a very youth-oriented culture, we spend billions on cosmetics & other potions to ward off aging and keep our appearances youthful and as flawless as possible. I recently read an article that said cosmetic surgery on the feet is very popular among the 20's & 30's groups - they want their feet to be sandal-worthy. I wonder if our culture, our values, what drives us internally is what makes us welcome technology, anything to keep us alive as long as possible - even when all hope is gone...I don't know the answer but it is very painful to see people spend their last moments on earth hooked up to a machine and essentally in a coma with their eyes staring blankly ahead....

  - janet

• July 29, 2010 5:33 p.m.

  I'm sure if we retained our youth and good health, we would probably want to live a few hundred years. The fact is, even modern medicine can't stop the human body from its hormonal signals to leave youth and step into middle age, then old age. With so many people living longer than they did a century ago, diseases associated with old age proliferate, like Alzheimer's Disease. If there is no cure or vaccine against this insidious illness, who would want to live past seventy years? The fortunate people who are able to avoid this dementia can go forward into their geriatric years, hopefully having sufficient income to live as comfortably as when they were younger. Their physical health must be monitored because their insides have aged as well. The body begins its slow descent toward the end. Which is why it's so important to live your life to the fullest while you're still young.

  - Debbie

• July 29, 2010 2:53 p.m.

  It truly baffles my mind how many people want their loved ones to "live" their lives on machines (I am talking about the non-reactive, non-verbal, vegetative people). Every single day these individuals are alive costs the American citizens billions of money. I am not being insensitive to human life but I am more concerned about individuals who live/exist with quality of life. Adaptive equipments for disabled individuals cost as much but these are individuals who need to "adapt" to their conditions in order to have quality of life. Quality of life is not very well defined by the Supreme Court. Tehre should be a mandate on advanced directives for healthcare for every United States of America citizen so that family members and the government will not have any say on one's healthcare choices. As it is now, advanved directives can be reversed by a family member - so an individual who has made an explicit request not to be on life support once unable to make his/her own decisions in his/her advanced directive for healthcare can be placed on life support if a family member wants to. This shoud be a NATIONAL mandate for the USA with no variants 1n each State. If an individual is tube fed, has no bowel control, no reacton or response to any form of stimuli, maintained in vegetative state, this is not a "living" individual, this is an individual who needs to rest. Animals who are prognosed to be in persistent vegetative state are euthanized; human

  - Sheila

• July 29, 2010 7:31 a.m.

  I am currently struggling with this subject. I am the daughter/POA for my 61yr old Mother who has End Stage Renal Failure. She's been on dialysis for 2mos. Her quality of life is, well non-existent. She constantly battles UTI's with other comorbidities. Her mental function is horrible and nobody seems to know why. One minute she can be herself and with it. Then like a light switch can be hallucinating and delusional. My father and sister want me to stop dialysis. I am struggling with the concept of "playing God." I ponder if it is right to terminate the dialysis knowing death will be eminent. I wish God would just take her on his own. I don't want to have to decide this.

  - Kara

• July 29, 2010 6:21 a.m.

  The Chinese have it right, one child per couple. I would add no longevity studies or effort of any kind allowed. This to help the planet. I am 75 when in grade school the earth population was 2 billion. Today it is what? Energy use is directly a result of population. Everything thing else is plain efforts to hide the truth and do nothing of value to save the planet.

  - Albert

• July 29, 2010 12:16 a.m.

  It is very difficult for anyone to really decide what life could be like "hooked up to a machine" until they are! My son has a trach/vent and a feeding tube and not only continues to enjoy his life, but is one of the most productive individuals on earth. The will to live is very strong and the archaic attitude of "better dead than disabled" results in the signing of DNR's with little or no counseling. Living with technology IS a choice and NO ONE else should make that choice for you! Quality of life can ONLY be determined by the individual and not by a doctor and most importantly should not be decided based upon cost!

  - Karen

• July 28, 2010 4:39 p.m.

  My advance health care directive emphatically states that I do not want to be kept alive beyond my ability to enjoy life. I also let my husband and family know my wishes. I cared for my aunt before she died and rode to the hospital with her and the paramedics when she stopped breathing. The paramedics were very respectful of her "do not resuscitate" directive. I sat with her body for several hours at the hospital before it was moved to the morgue. It proved to really help me accept her passing and relieve the guilt I could have taken on as a caregiver who has to let go.

  - Alma

• July 28, 2010 4:08 p.m.

  This is such a difficult topic to discuss with a loved one who is dying! I have wanted to broach the subject with my husband, who has very advanced COPD and struggles for every breath. I honestly hope it will be his heart to give out first, as not being able to breathe is so horrible. He has a living will and it is on file with the hospital, but I worry his daughters will oppose it when faced with the end in sight. They have watched him struggle as I have, so, maybe not. The Drs. will not be wanting to keep him alive for financial reasons, as he is receiving VA care (thank GOD!). The VA has begun to tell him no more can be done for him. That just leaves ME, as usual. I am so glad I am able to care for him and I dread the lonliness and loss ahead, but I also treasure this time together.

  - Doris

• July 28, 2010 9:26 a.m.

  "I agree with him (Dr. C.)...As long as you are willing to pay they will hook you up on a blank machine."-Pedro Did St. Patrick have anything to do with this Irish "grasp"? They weren't left wondering... -Carol

  - Carol

• July 28, 2010 7:50 a.m.

  I myself have been lucky to never have to make a choice to extend a loved ones life or understand that sometimes you need to let go for that persons own good. As an EMT on the other hand I have seen far to many people spend the remaining 5-10 yrs of their life sitting in a nursing home so druged out of their mind they need to be reminded to breath. The simple anwser is money. This country has a keen ability to find markets and exploit them, thats how we have become simple the best economy the world has and maybe will ever see. This comes at a great cost. If medicine or surgery is able to take a 80 year old and have them live to 100 with out having to take 25 pills everyday and they are able to live their life under their own power, then personally I am all for it. That truly is a miracle of modern science and should be a testiment to our abilities as humans. However, if that same 80 year old has to be told when to breath inside a nursing home where they cant even tell wether it is night or day, thats just sick and a shame. But other people make money, so it wont stop. Its unfortunant but this problem will get worse and worse.....its not going away.

  - Mike

• July 28, 2010 6:14 a.m.

  I don't know anything about the folks from Ireland, but I wonder if maybe they are a more spiritual people than we are in the US. Perhaps they are prepared to die, while many of us are not.

  - wondering