One ER Doctor Speaks

"In America, we're dialyzing ninety-two year-year-old people. We spend the final resources on every life until we've squeezed every possible life out of it. We save life and we tangle ourselves up in all sorts of ethical dilemmas, but there's a lot to talk about what we're doing.

"I find it abominable that we take people who have horrible disabilities, like with a stroke, and their brain is destoryed and they're ninety years old. They can't recognize anybody around them and they put gastric feeding tubes in those foks, so that the GI doctor can get paid for doing that. Then, we send them to the ER doctor, so we can work on their fever. We spend thousands of dollars taking care of people who have no meaningful chance of return. And we don't have the resources to give a measles shot to a baby? That's perverse."

John Whitcomb, MD
Excerpt, End-of-Life Matters, by Stephen J. Busalacchi