The inevitability of death and taxes

Medical technology will force us to examine what we mean by death and what its relation to our lives should mean. In fact, the growing ability of technology to keep people alive is blurring the boundary between life and death.

A taste of what is to come was foreshadowed in the 2003 Victorian Supreme Court case where it was deemed that food given through a tube did not constitute medical treatment, in the case of a nursing home resident suffering the degenerative Pick’s disease. This allowed the husband of the patient to withdraw treatment. The patient had not communicated for three years, could not move and could not eat.

These kings of ethical dilemmas can only accelerate into the future.

The desire to postpone death indefinitely is understandable, if lamentable. And who would not want everything done for their relatives if there was a chance of cure.

But our limited contact with death should not necessarily postpone our discussion of it. It is not only causing great angst, it is also proving to be very expensive. Our lives may increasingly depend on it.