Semi Rant: Extraordinary Measures

I do NOT understand using extraordinary measures to prolong the life (and suffering) of a very elderly person. I'm talking about someone old, who has lived their life, who is at peace with their place in it and wants to go home to their Heavenly Father and whose life is only being sustained by machines and science. And most importantly is in pain and not likely to get better. Ever.

I'm not saying we should go pull the plug on every coma patient or that nobody should ever use extraordinary measures to sustain life. However, in this case, its an end of life scenario where even if the individual were to survive the current event the damage is so significant that their quality of life for however long they have left is going to suck. Big time.

I really hate quality of life discussions. They're no fun. They're uncomfortable. Nobody likes to have the chat but I've had to have these discussions before with my parents as they've both survived multiple rounds of cancer. And with cancer the bisnitch of the thing is that there's almost ALWAYS something more they can try, but the thing is, some of the treatments are so horrible, and they'll only buy you maybe a couple months extra, if they don't kill you outright. So you can have 3 months of pretty okay and then croak or you can have maybe a year from hell and then die anyways. My parents have both clearly expressed that they don't want to be subjected to that. They'd both rather go in peace and have made both my sister and I promise to let them do just that.

But the poor soul I'm thinking of is currently being put through the ringer because their children are not ready yet for them to leave. The same children who are not sitting at the bedside watching their loved one suffer. I think if you want to put that person through this hell, especially when they've said they don't want to, then you should have to sit there and WATCH and not go out of town to party in Vegas. You're a 60 something year old person. Grow up and do right by your parent and stop bullying/guilt tripping the person with medical power of attorney into doing what you want.

I may be slight opinionated...