Re: Doctors milk dying cancer patients for every last dollar

Tony, that's true to a certain extent.  What isn't included in that article is the fact that all a patient has to do is to refuse treatment.  It's that simple.  The main proponents of continuing "hopeless" treatments - are family members and relatives.  They are the ones who refuse to let go of the terminally ill patient.  I've seen it several times.  I have a living will and it is very specific about not continuing treatment if in a doctor's opinion it would do not good.  (I do not want to be on life support.  Period.  My kids and grandkids know that yet I'm not convinced I can get them to keep their noses out of it.)

For all the diatribe in your posted article they do not mention those whose lives are saved through chemo as it is applied to "hopeless" cases.  One case in point is that of Greg Anderson who as a smoker got cancer in one lung and had it removed (total lung, not just a lobe), didn't quit smoking (talk about a death wish) and got cancer in the other lung too.  He was given 30 days to live and opted for chemotherapy.  That was in about 1988 and last I heard he was still alive and very healthy - he even quit smoking.  He has written several books on cancer survival.  If doctors quit throwing chemotherapy at hopeless cases, many people like Anderson would not be alive today.

One other thing is that - death isn't a big deal.  It's merely a transition.  If you fear it, you will be drawn to it one way or another.  The guy at the site below mentions Freud but Karl Menninger in "Man Against Himself" said that we all have a death wish.  It's something that nobody wants to look at when they are very ill because they "think" that they want to live, yet many are deliberately killing themselves.

http://www.selfhealthsystems.com/archiveletter.php?id=1

YOUTHFUL AGING: SECRET OF THE FOUNTAIN©
HOW LONG DO YOU WANT TO LIVE?

One of Sigmund Freud's most accurate and startling discoveries about the human psyche was the pervasiveness of the ''death wish.'' Eric Berne took this idea further with his concept that we set the age and cause of death at an early age. For over 10 years before his death, he told colleagues that his life contract called for him to die at age of 60 of a heart attack. And he did just that!

Elvis Pressley apparently believed that he would die at age 42, the age at which his mother died. And he fulfilled his expectation.

In working with over 30,000 chronically ill patients, I observed depression and poor self-esteem at the root of most problems. I was shocked, in 2002, to hear from ordinary audiences ''Oh, no'' when I began discussing my concept of living healthily to age 140.

Clinically, we know that at least 40% of Americans are depressed enough to need therapy; I now suspect that another 40% are at lest depressed enough that Freud's idea of a ''death wish'' is alive and well.

While these concepts may not appeal to those with few emotional reserves, or to those who have set a life contract to die early, I believe that significant numbers of energetic, enthusiastic individuals are ready to redefine old age, providing a new concept of longevity. These may live healthily to a minimum of 100 years, some to 120. And if they embrace the essential activities encouraged by my research, they may live healthily 120 to 160 years, just by adding a few simple activities. These individuals may truly set the stage for Homo Noeticus, as defined by Caroline Myss. They will not consider themselves elderly until at lest 120 years of age.

There are on the internet several ''games'' and tests of longevity, some by insurance companies. According to one of these, my life expectancy is 100, while another gives me 116 years. At least that one is approaching my belief!

Consider the current life expectancy in the U.S. of an average of 76.9 years.