The Kevorkian Option

[shcrane71]

9. We've already got it with our healthcare system.

It's a "quality of life" thing. If grandma and grandpa's only asset is that two-bedroom house in a ghost-town decimated by the farm crisis, and grandma & grandpa will have to give up their only asset to get the long-term healthcare in a nursing home paid for by the state, many will choose the Kevorkian option.

I've seen this happen with my family on more than one occasion. People want to leave their kids SOMETHING. And the kids can't provide nursing home care, or pay for the care because all the kids are working so much and their wages have decreased. So, grandma's seizures are worse, but she still have her wits about her, and she contracts pneumonia. Grandma is then hospitalized, and gets really, really scared about dying, but she has a do not resuscitate instruction. She's not dying very quickly, and is put on morphine. After another dose of morphine, Grandma's dead, and the hospital writes pneumonia as the cause of death.

Kids get the crappy two-bedroom house, and everyone feels like a piece of shit because Grandma kept telling us how scared she was.