Reply #27: Agreed, if that's what he is referring to, but many of us also know that a healthcare

[patrice]

system that puts profit first WILL indeed manage certain kinds of care plans in ways that track them out of the system, permanently, as soon as possible. I'm not talking about the terminal here, but stuff that's earlier than that, say more in the acute category or chronic. There are all kinds of judgement calls with the Elderly before they get terminal, little tiny decisions that CAN in fact make the difference between a realtively functional person and someone who's in the hospital and on the meter for when the system says "time's up!" I am concerned about self-fulfilling prophecies here that assume a person is "better off dead" or soon will be, so why invest any more time and effort in them; guess what, the assumption causes behaviors that make that assumption come true. Then everyone feels perfectly justified in whatever they did or did not do. Morphine is such a handy and legal little tool and it's practical uses have been known and USED for a very long time.