A Time to Live, a Time to Die

To countless people who suffer from serious illness or injury, the wonders of modern medicine bring hope, healing and improved quality of life. Using medications and surgical techniques that didn’t even exist 50 or 60 years ago, today’s health care professionals can treat or manage medical conditions that once meant certain death.

But what happens when medical treatment can only postpone the inevitable? What if there’s no hope for a return to health and an active life? Should medical professionals bring to bear all the treatment methods at their disposal when a longer life only means more pain and suffering?

“To be clear: Everyone dies. There are no life-saving medications, only life-prolonging ones,” says Dr. Craig Bowron, a  hospital-based physician in St. Paul, Minnesota. Bowron has seen first-hand the effects of keeping people alive when there is no hope for recovery, and he is troubled by what he’s seen.

In an article titled The Dying of the Light: The Drawn-out Indignities of the American Way of Death, Dr. Bowron describes the extreme measures used to keep some elderly and chronically ill patients alive. He questions the wisdom and humanity of prolonging life in people whose bodies are riddled with pain and disease, and he’s careful to clarify that he’s not suggesting euthanasia or assisted suicide –hot topics of the day – as an alternative.

“This isn’t about euthanasia,” according to Bowron. “It’s not about spiraling health care costs. It’s about the gift of life — and death. It is about living life and death with dignity, and letting go.”

Dr. Bowron’s article raises a lot of questions that only a patient and the patient’s family can answer, underscoring the importance of having the discussion. End-of-life decisions shouldn’t be left to chance or to strangers.