User Reviews

This episode highlights the very real dangerous attitude that is prevalent in modern medicine: to keep a patient 'alive' at all costs. Just because you can do a procedure, doesn't mean you necessarily should. Many episodes of this show have crossed the line, in my opinion, of what is ethically okay in terms of treatment. Not only do doctors routinely cross the line of life versus death but also bankrupt so many families with endless tests and procedures. Even after a family makes the decision to stop treatment, etc. And in some cases, the taxpayer is footing the bill for all those expensive things, which isn't ethical, either. My dad had a massive stroke earlier this year and was flown several states away to a regional stroke center. His care was excellent. But he made his feelings very clear: no ventilator or machines. The doctors did necessary procedures, but his body eventually couldn't fight any longer. His doctors were honest with us, and we let him die with dignity, on his terms. He couldn't have lived hooked up to machines or dependent on someone else for care. Doctors in today's world don't take into account the quality of life when pushing for extraordinary measures during hopeless situations, ie. elderly patients who are dying of natural causes, brain dead patients with no hope of independent life, catastrophic injuries. Sometimes it is more merciful to forego all the technological doo dads and let life, and death, occur as it is meant to.