tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222625281347419787.post7775318879332968948..comments2024-03-15T18:52:48.143-06:00Comments on Ethics Forum: Communicating with "Vegetative" PatientsAlice C. Linsleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13069827354696169270noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222625281347419787.post-20378042574698028352010-02-10T06:33:20.068-07:002010-02-10T06:33:20.068-07:00Talking about death certainly can be helpful in pr...Talking about death certainly can be helpful in preparing for it. This report isn't about that, however.Alice C. Linsleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13069827354696169270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9222625281347419787.post-20498382424847685082010-02-09T17:37:03.278-07:002010-02-09T17:37:03.278-07:00Alice, death comes for us all. Regardless of your...Alice, death comes for us all. Regardless of your beliefs, death is not a "bad" subject and actually talking about it makes the dying process easier for you and your family.<br /><br />A little exercise: You're on your way home from work and suffer a heart attack. After months being unconscious you "wake" to find that you are unable to communicate with your family, your children, your husband. You can't feel your body, you can't speak, maybe you can open your eyes. If you're "lucky" the part of your brain that thinks is still in tact. <br /><br />Over the years, as your body is fed by tubes, cleaned by strangers, rolled to prevent bed sores, and wheeled from institutional room to institutional room, you are unable to thank those around you, unable to read, eat, talk, maybe even breathe without help. You are left, in those long hours to think about what life means.<br /><br />There are worse things in life than death. Each person should think hard about what they want in the case of a tragedy. They should sign the documents appropriate in their state and share those wishes with their doctor.<br /><br />Death has developed into a taboo in modern culture but it hasn't always been so. Talking about death is good preparation for when it comes.Ann Neumannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com