[danielweber]

Yes, it's extremely hard in America to choose to have a European level of health care, where not everything is done to keep people alive at all costs, damn the bills and damn quality-of-life and damn patient wishes to the contrary.

One quote from the "How Doctors Die" I linked to elsewhere on this page (heavily trimmed for space):

He explained to me that he never, under any circumstances, wanted to be placed on life support machines again. .... Doctors did everything possible to resuscitate him and put him on life support in the ICU. This was Jack’s worst nightmare. ... Then I turned off the life support machines and sat with him. He died two hours later. ... Even with all his wishes documented, Jack hadn’t died as he’d hoped. The system had intervened. One of the nurses, I later found out, even reported my unplugging of Jack to the authorities as a possible homicide. the prospect of a police investigation is terrifying for any physician. I could far more easily have left Jack on life support against his stated wishes, prolonging his life, and his suffering, a few more weeks. I would even have made a little more money, and Medicare would have ended up with an additional $500,000 bill.

I think it's very important that people be allowed to spend their own money on what they want, because that's where the innovation will come from that will eventually be commoditized for everyone else. But sometimes last year's pill is good enough.