Reply #26: Unfortunately, when the "system" becomes involved,

[SoCalDem]

The actual person and their families lose "control". When people used to share inter-generational homes, old people died natural deaths at home...in their own beds, with family by their sides.

Modernity brought intervention in to the death process, and once "others" take control, hanging onto life itself, becomes the goal..at any cost..and the costs are HUGE.

Basically, from the instant we take our first breaths, we are headed in one direction, and microbes, viruses & bacteria are "out to get us"..something WILL kill us all.. No amount of money will buy immortality, but at the end of our lives, vast quantities of wealth get poured into the system, in hopes of prolonging the last vestiges of life left in us..

It's just what we do..wise or unwise, we usually try to hang on as long as possible..

When we were a mostly agrarian society, people had a day-to-day relationship with life & death, and may have accepted the fact that people died too..

Modern medicine was sold to us as a way to live a LONG time..but when only the rich can afford the primo care that prevents & identifies potential troubles early enough for successful intervention, many people end up spending (or are asked to spend) LOTS of money at the end of life...just to hang on a few more months..often in agony..

In our family, we are engaged in a life-death struggle to save a cat.. We have spent $825.00 in 3 weeks, desperately trying to save our kitty..we are syringe feeding him and medicating him, because his liver disease is treatable, and possibly reversible..