> kept alive as a badge of love by grieving relatives.
Is it the relatives who keep them alive or is it the pandering "professionals" who take the relatives' money knowing full well what the outcome will be?
Worse yet, most of the useless treatments add to the discomfort of the patient.
I spent a couple of years dealing with the end of life system on a daily basis on behalf of my late wife.
I spent much of my time defending her against "professionals" who proposed meds and procedures for her and after scrutiny were revealed to be money-grabbing charlatans who cared only for their P&L and nothing for her comfort or well-being.
Their most common question was "What do you care- your insurance pays for it?"
It was miraculous - they always seemed to conclude that she needed the exact amount of a therapy that her insurance would pay for, and not an iota more or less.
Is that a coincidence.. hmm?
Well, I did care.
I should add that the nurses and aides who cared for her were wonderful- but the MD's and administrators - if Dante were writing today, he'd have a particularly nasty circle in the Inferno for them.