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by javajosh
766 days ago
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A doctor friend of mine put it succinctly: let old people die; that's what they do. End-of-life interventions are not for benefit of the old, they are going to die anyway. It is an entirely perverse financial incentive that aligns with a positive "life preserving" incentive that fails to adjust to the nuances of natural human mortality. I believe this applies to the terminally ill as well. This is why most doctors refuse (non-palliative) treatment for terminal cancer diagnoses. |
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I saw this claim a while back and looked it up and it didn't seem true. Very few people actually refuse non-palliative treatment entirely for cancer. And the few who do refuse are usually not doctors but rather alternative medicine enthusiasts. Modern treatment can extend the lifespan of many of those with terminal cancers for a couple of years with good quality of life, and few say no to that; those years can be very meaningful for many.
What doctors do frequently decline is treatment near the end of life that's overwhelmingly likely to be futile or result in a low quality of life.