Somewhere along the way we have forgotten to have a compassionate and clear conversation with our families and loved ones about death, our deaths. We treat it as though it were a negotiable event whose attendance may not be required. Dread fuels denial and denial leaves us in a default position of having little control over the dignity and quality of the final stage of our lives.
The default position may include being kept alive at any cost, no matter the ineffectiveness of the medical procedures—other than to keep us alive organically—and despite the discomfort and pain of resuscitations, tube tethering, isolation and lack of human touch. We have relinquished our lives to modern medicine and its oath to extend life as long as possible or to the decisions made by our families that may run counter to our own desires.
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