Do Not Resuscitate

Are all institutions like people? Born to die someday? Yes, life well lived, full of achievement and success and touching others in a grandly positive way, it is worth celebrating and honoring.

But nothing in this world lasts forever. Especially to someone who subscribes to natural selection.

Yes, America spends far more in healthcare per capita than other nations. But if we are spending 80-90% of this in the last 6 months of everyone's life, then, in that single way, we should copy what they do in Canada and Europe.

Doesn't the same thing go for a company that provides something that no one wants anymore? Why extend life support by 6 months or more--doesn't it mean denial, extending the mourning process, and a suboptimal allocation of resources? Whether one believes in Heaven or Darwin?

(I have a DNR, and a very sick mom, in case anyone was wondering).

UPDATE: Speaking of healthcare, this strategy will make the mortgage crunch look like the conflict in Grenada, rather than an epic crisis:

The Obama-Baucus solution to this slow-motion catastrophe is to add tens of millions more people to the federal balance sheet. Because the public option will enjoy taxpayer sponsorship, it will offer generous packages to consumers that no private company could ever afford or justify. And because federal officials will run not only the new plan but also the "market" in which it "competes" with private programs -- like playing both umpire and one of the teams on the field -- they will crowd out private alternatives and gradually assume a health-care monopoly.

Many proponents of plans similar to Mr. Baucus's openly cite this as one of their goals. Eventually, the public option will import Medicare's price controls into the private sector as it tries to manage the inevitable cost overruns. When that doesn't work, Congress will deal with the problem by capping overall spending and rationing care through politics (instead of prices) -- like Canada does today.

You might wonder, what's so bad about Canada? Well, how about 6 weeks waiting for an MRI instead of 6 minutes, 6 months for an organ transplant instead of 6 weeks, and no southern border to cross when a person wants to opt out of waiting or getting 'no' for a procedure or medication?

At least Canada's morbidity statistics will finally be free from the noise that the U.S. care option currently gives them.