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The right to quality of life
Q: Does end-of-life care prolong life or does it prolong suffering? Should it be a part of health-care reform?
My neice, a professor at a University in Cape Town, South Africa, once said to me: "We deny ourselves all the goodies in life so that we can be healthy and live long. But then, when we grow old and retire, no one really wants us around so what's the point of all this sacrifice?"
She had a valid point.
We have increased longevity through health care and then no one really wants you to live long and be a burden on society. The media and the so-called "Baby-Boomers" are always grumbling about how much the care of old people is costing them. Now that I have crossed 75 I thought of checking out some assisted-living facilities. I was appalled by what I saw. People sitting listlessly waiting for death to consume them. Here was a treasure of any society. People who have spent a life-time gaining valuable experience now discarded.
More than 20 years ago, my mother and my mother-in-law both requested that we not to prolong their lives, if they ever had to go into hospital. Both had strokes, both could have "lived" a vegetative life on life support, but I honored their wishes and refused to put them on life support. The doctors were aghast and accused me of being heartless, but I know I was honoring their wishes. This is my wish too. I have told my children not to prolong my life unnecessarily.
If aging people need advise and guidance it is right to give it to them.
By
Arun Gandhi
|
November 3, 2009; 11:08 AM ET
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Posted by: eschatological-man | November 4, 2009 6:16 PM
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I have given my family similar instructions in the form of a living will.
Posted by: lepidopteryx | November 3, 2009 5:01 PM
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Momastae, Brethren Ghandi:
"Enjoy Today, and don't worry about tomorrow, if ye can, nor hurry tomorrow for it surely will come [Justly in a FLASH as it had in the Past]"
O' DEATH! The patience that ye hath, O' my Loyal friend; Why hath ye been unjustifiably given such an ugly name of sorts for such a beautifull THING or feat! O' me dear Death, WE [i] know that Ye art not a Beast, Yet i [WE] intuitively know that ye art a good care-taker , No-Matter. O' Death, such a smart but Loyal Worker.
From Caterpillar NOW [THIS] we are, To Butterfly [NEXT] each goes... according to TiME] Our Holy-i Cosmic Eternal Miracle(s) in Motion: Coming & Going according to "IT"s [Natural] unreversable-Laws (No Error). Note: ""IT"" ['G-D' by manymanymany names, not 99 or 1,000 names; does make, not many, mistakes (i.e., placing a Female in a Mans Body; vis viz, etc..) ; but IT is impossible for IT to reverse IT's own Existance! Hark;
LiFE [LOVE] is a Miracle [not written in Sin or in Curse story's] And Sex, or coochy-poochy is surely not Love!
Pssssst, Death is an inverse phenomona-of-OFF, and Birth is the inverse phenomona-of-ON; This happens because "IT" loves LIFE "iTSELF" and "IT" in-turn needs to rely-On DEATH; or else there is No Such thing as "ETERNITY AVOiDING LONLiNESS" (includes MATH, like in; INFiNITY & FiNITY) through each and every 1-of-US ANNiMATE(s), aka PHOTON Essences; appearing Justly for a 'time' (in manmade clocks & Religion system) via Real 'TiME' (our appearing now then disappearing again & again via "IT"s own given TEMPERATURE & Frequency (Cosmic Heartbeat) , for US, thereFrom & thereTo.
iMAGINE, another Future bound "ESHATOLOGICAL POSSIBILITiES OF ONEs (Immortal MEMEtic) SELF"!? includes All In-Animates through "IT"s own stuff & THiNGS; hence OUR Holyi Cosmic immortal Motion, 'Avoiding Lonliness' for LOVE [Life's] sake!"
"People Need People" WHEREFORE: "iT too needs IT" for support in the holy [Eternal Heartbeat in Warmth] PALINDROME sweeping IT's things & Stuffs round & around.... for "iTSELF", only to be again!And that includes ANY-[Unique]-1!
Vote, YES! TO Help ease those whom have No family to take care of them during each Carbon-based n Biofinite-Deaths great momentuum, aka "END OF [ANOTHER] TIME(s)" moment.
Hint: H-O-P-E via "IT" is our Best-Friend! Therefore: WE [i] was never Created, nor can i [WE] ever be destroyed!!! Includes The-GOOD or the-BAD "Photon Essences in Photon-Mist forms! So How can anyone "Immortal" BEGONE from our midst?! SECRET: Your Current Parents (Humanly-Planed Ye, US, i, or not) art not the only real Parents you've ever Had. And in the Future, again, Ye will have different parents (Conscious or not!)