Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Delaying the Inevitable

This post, about how doctors treat their own serious medical challenges, is most instructive.  It makes sense to look at how the experts treat themselves (although considering how political scientists do politics within their departments or within political systems might cause us to think otherwise).

Doctors, at least anecdotally, are not enthusiastic about prolonging their own lives with extensive treatment.  I am not sure how mainstream this guy's views really are; is CPR really that bad?

Still, doctors seem to accept death when the time comes.  I hope I am that brave since I do not believe in an afterlife.  It is all or nothing, but I think prolonging the all is probably worse than the nothing.  I do know that we spend far more money on medical care on the last couple of years rather than we should, that more $$ should go to prevention and early medical intervention.  As long as old people vote more than kids, that probably will not change much.  But, if we educate people better about their choices and ignore the idiots who talk about death panels, we might get less painful processes for some.

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