Regarding the post above regarding "extraordinary measures", yes, you have that right. I have a living will, it orders that should I be catastrophically injured, if there is reason to believe that substantial recovery is likely, treatment should be undertaken. If the prognosis is that I will require significant ongoing and permanent treatment or assistance, let it go. If I will need to be permanently attached to ANY outside machine, power source, be paralyzed to the extent that I require total assistance, pull the plug NOW. "A coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but once". If you are so all fired high on Jesus, why are you so afraid to meet him?? I'm not. Why should I take resources from those who could otherwise put them to good use ? I have watched many die over a 10 or 15 year period. You notice I did not say "lived". They pumped fluids in one end and away from the other, the nursing home corporation made their 6 or 7 thousand a month, while a " living" lump of meat lay quivering in a hospital bed. I have never met a single person who said "wow, I want to go just like that!". I have no fear of dieing, but I do worry about nosy self righteous control freaks trying to "intervene" on "my" behalf and perpetuating some zombie like existence. I would say that probably 30% of my age cohort has some serious medical condition at least in the beginning stages. My life expectancy is from 21 to 24 years with an 85% confidence level. I have had my bite of the apple, with a little left. If I have not gotten out of it what I wanted or expected, that is just too damn bad. I realize that many of you have a problem with the finality of death, you just have to postulate some ethereal wondrous afterlife where you play harps, have family reunions etc etc. When I die, I will become minerals. I will be absorbed by a tree they will plant in my ashes. That tree will produce acorns, which the deer will eat, the deer that fed me during my life. I will live forever..... but not as a harp player.
