RF23 - Rethinking About Health Care Reform

Maybe, maybe just maybe I may be a caring individual and not so black and white. Last night I was in the ER with the wife and although I can go on a litany of blasts on Emergency Rooms, I won't. But what I will write about is the controversy of elderly care.

At what point do we, as relatives or children of our aging parents or grandparents let go?

One of the points about the health care bill is that the Obama Administration is pulling the plug on granny, determining if an elderly person should die because of their age and obvious condition.

I found myself asking the same, when I saw a ninety year old woman, brought in by her own senior citizen daughter. The woman was non-responsive, because she was deaf, and in the hospital to get a blood transfusion. The daughter thought, all she had to do was bring her in and mom will get a transfusion and be done. So as the hours went on, finally a doctor asked the daughter if the daughter thought about hospice care, the daughter replied that she promised she'll take care of her mother and one more note, the mother's order was to have doctors do what they can to keep her alive. I remember the controversy of a politician, saying it's the elderly's duty to die. The comment has since been recanted and clarified, but is he right? You see the one thing, we hate to talk about is death, we as Americans are afraid to die, don't want to talk about death and damn sure don't want to talk about what happens when you die. The process the morticians do, the process if given, what an medical examiner does..We cringe that our blood, will be drained and replaced with a chemical to preserve you.

As I was looking at the woman, and it was hard to do so, because of her condition, I couldn't help but wonder, why continue? Let nature do it's course. Continued blood transfusions and monthly visits by a doctor only prolongs the inevitable.

So is the gov't right to include the limit of how much care doctors should give the elderly or should it be left up to God?

Either way, we as relatives have to face that death happens and we have to think about the person who lived a full life would want. For me, in that condition that lady is in or was in..Someone have mercy and let me go...