downunderwunda
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Let me start by saying I am an Aussie, however I have a large number of friends in the US, Canada & Great Britain.
Death is a very cultural thing, some accept it as a part of life, others as a celebration of passing from one life to the next.
My question is have we, as a society, because those I listed above although cover all parts of the globe, are in essence very similar, become 'deathphobic'?
I saw my GP today & we had this discussion, he has a history of working in ICU & asked the question of me regarding resus of the elderly with multiple comorbidities & how far we go, & how far we should go.
Health systems across our countries cost a fortune. The last figures I got here were estimating an ICU bed at $140K per bed per day. so should we fill these beds up with elderly patients, with inherently poor outcomes, to have them live for a few more weeks, or should we lay it on the line to them & say no interventions, share your time with them. His thoughts were that this should be GP initiated, so they could have everything worked out when they were healthy. This involves discussion with the families.
Have we, as a society seen too many episodes of ER, Grays Anatomy & the like where every Cardiac Arrest is revived & people think it is the normal thing? How can we educate people & change attitudes.
Please try not to make this a legal argument, this is for opinions, not legal speculation. Bear in mind there are countries out there who do this already, sucessfully.
Death is a very cultural thing, some accept it as a part of life, others as a celebration of passing from one life to the next.
My question is have we, as a society, because those I listed above although cover all parts of the globe, are in essence very similar, become 'deathphobic'?
I saw my GP today & we had this discussion, he has a history of working in ICU & asked the question of me regarding resus of the elderly with multiple comorbidities & how far we go, & how far we should go.
Health systems across our countries cost a fortune. The last figures I got here were estimating an ICU bed at $140K per bed per day. so should we fill these beds up with elderly patients, with inherently poor outcomes, to have them live for a few more weeks, or should we lay it on the line to them & say no interventions, share your time with them. His thoughts were that this should be GP initiated, so they could have everything worked out when they were healthy. This involves discussion with the families.
Have we, as a society seen too many episodes of ER, Grays Anatomy & the like where every Cardiac Arrest is revived & people think it is the normal thing? How can we educate people & change attitudes.
Please try not to make this a legal argument, this is for opinions, not legal speculation. Bear in mind there are countries out there who do this already, sucessfully.