Choosing death

With advances in medical technology, it’s possible to keep people alive longer than ever before. This certainly has its wonders, but it’s really an ambiguous achievement. It means that death more and more is the result of decisions about treatment and ending treatment. We can keep someone breathing artificially, a heart beating artificially; we can maintain blood pressure and other functions through medication. Even if we decide not to use aggressive treatments, it’s a decision ; and if one decides to end aggressive treatments, the heretical imperative is even more evident.

Death has become a “choice” in a way that it never was before, and that places a strange burden on patients and their families.