blog 18

My third article is called “HEALTH; Rules on Reviving the Dying Bring Undue Suffering, Doctors Contend”. It is a newspaper article written by Elisabeth Rosenthal, a writer for the New York Times. The main argument in this article is that almost no one is allowed to die in a hospital without attempted resuscitation, which is often unnecessary and painful. Only ten to fifteen percent of patients who are revived will survive. Many people include in their doctors records, D.N.R, or “Do Not Resuscitate” upon their death. To some people, when death comes, it is time to go. Why should we toy with the natural balance of life? Is that our place? It is a normal policy for doctors to shove tubes in lungs, crack ribs, and violently shock a corpse to revive it. This is for all patients, even terminally ill ones. Many are revived simply to suffer excruciating pain for a few more days and then pass away once again. Occasionally resuscitation does work, for cases such as cardiac arrest and stroke. Those who survive often suffer nerve/brain damage, as well as pain from the resuscitation itself. It makes you think, should we really be doing this? Are we that afraid of death that no one is allowed to just slip away peacefully? Why should I have to state in paper whether or not I want to really die when I die? Not only is it painful for doctors to have to do, but it is also painful for families. The doctor knows the patient is going to die and nothing will help, yet is required by code to try and revive them. So that doctor pulls the curtains and begins the awful process, knowing the patient will suffer and die, while their family stands outside the curtain hoping and praying it works. To me, this is a terrifying way to die. I don’t want to be shocked, just let me go painlessly.