How Doctors Die: It’s Not Like the Rest of Us, But It Should Be

[jtuck004]

12. Oh, of course. I saw instances of this when I worked the streets for 2 1/2 years.

That was a ways back for me as well.

There were always patients for whom the cure was not the answer. Perhaps a few might have wished that we had found them a little more dead so they wouldn't have had to go through as much, because we were really good at getting them into the hospital safe, sometimes in less pain, and still alive.

I bet the majority of them were would have been just fine with the efforts on their behalf, however.

Since the health insurance reform discussion it just seems like there is an increase in the little stories of how death was a welcome relief from treatment, many focusing as much on the cost savings as quality of life, usually anecdotal, and they seem to be accepted much more uncritically. Nearly always the setup is such that the solution of just letting people die earlier, (well, not me, but for you, etc) works so well, and oh, BTW, we gonna save a bundle of $$$.

People should be careful what they wish for.

If the concern is really about the patient, that would be great. But there are a LOT of competing interests out there with an agenda, most of which have not a thing to do with the welfare of the patient. So I try to be careful to be aware of who might profit the most from this.