The Inevitability of Death

For many, talking about death may seem a bit morbid. Yet it’s a process that we will all have to undergo at some point. We are not eternal. Therefore, we should all feel comfortable to talk about death because you never know when it may happen. It’s never too soon to explore the medical treatments that one is willing to undergo. What if you found yourself in a persistent vegetative state, a condition in which you are no longer responsive to your surroundings, brain function is no longer working efficiently. If you were to be in a persistent vegetative state would you want to be connected to a ventilator? Patients who are in persistent vegetative state have never been able to recover or function on their own without the assistance of technology. If you were an able bodied person before being in a persistent vegetative state, would you want to prolong your death knowing that you won’t be the same person as before? Yet you can’t make this decision while being in a persistent vegetative state because your brain function is practically non existent. It’s very likely that one of your family members will be making this decision for you. Unless you have an advance directive. An advance directive is a written statement in which you place all the medical treatments that you wish to take and those that you don’t. If you have an advance directive, then the doctors and your family members would know what to do if you were to find yourself in a critically ill situation. An advance directive can also help prevent any family arguments over which treatment is best for you because you would have already stated which ones you want. Moreover, death shouldn’t be seen as something taboo to talk about because it’s a natural process of life. Talk about death and inform yourself about it!