BobUpnDown
Well-known member
Makes some fair points, particularly about natural deaths from respiratory disease due to poverty, pollution & weather.
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Earlier this year we bade a sad farewell to an elderly relative. She had been suffering from reduced and failing heart, kidney and liver function for some years and had dementia (though happily not too much mental impairment) a few years ago we had had to make a decision on resuscitation in the event of her having a stroke or heart attack. Resuscitation of an elderly patient in such circumstances can be quite brutal resulting in broken ribs and often irrecoverable mental damage. After considerable soul searching we decided that in such an event she would be left to pass in peace. In this case it did not happen and she died peacefully in her sleep with my wife at her bedside. So no, it is not "a tad immoral", far from it, witholding extreme treatment from elderly people can be a kindness. We think too much that we have to cling to life but we will all die, death is immutable."Prolonged intubation and intensive care is often futile, expensive and unkind". A tad amoral perhaps?
I have some sympathy with your position and watched my father in law die a terrible death from cancer, but this is not saying goodbye to elderly relatives who are clinging onto lives.Earlier this year we bade a sad farewell to an elderly relative