American Choices Around Death Differ By Religion And Race, Survey

[cbayer]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/21/death-choices-new-study_n_4317779.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

Religion News Service | By Cathy Lynn Grossman
Posted: 11/21/2013 1:04 pm EST


Jonathan Kirn via Getty Images

WASHINGTON (RNS) Death may be inevitable, but one in three Americans – including most blacks and Hispanics – want doctors to never quit fighting it.

And that number has nearly doubled in 23 years, a new survey finds.

In 1990, 15 percent of U.S. adults said doctors should do everything possible for a patient, even in the face of incurable illness and pain. Today, 31 percent hold that view, according to a report released Thursday (Nov. 21) by the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project.

The majority of U.S. adults (66 percent) still say there are circumstances when a patient should be allowed to die. At the same time, however, the never-say-die view calling for nonstop aggressive treatment has increased across every religion, race, ethnicity and level of education.


more at link

[rug]

1. Nobody ever really knows until they get there.

[cbayer]

2. I can vouch for that

and there can be extremely divergent views from within a single family.

From my reading of this, I don't see a lot of difference between believers and non-believers, though there are some differences from one religion to another.

[Silent3]

3. It sounds like many are more comfortable with others "letting go" than doing so themselves.

I've written it into my will that I don't want to be kept on life support if I'm in a persistent vegetative state, or otherwise severely brain damaged.

That said, I'm be willing to put up with a fair amount of pain and disability to just keep going as long as my mind is still mostly intact, especially given that I have a certain amount of technological optimism about the treatments and cures that might be developed the longer I manage to stay alive.

[cbayer]

4. You are right and really smart to have done your living will.

The situation arises far too often when a family or even a single member of a family fights to keep someone on support when it is clear their condition is hopeless and irreversible.