End of Life Issues

One of the best books I have read recently is the popular novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society co-written by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. The setting takes place in the Channel Islands located between England and France just after World War II has ended. The residents had to live under German occupancy during the final months of the war, and their lives were in constant jeopardy if any of the rules of the enemy were broken. At one point in the novel, one of the key characters, Elizabeth, speaks of Matthew Arnold's poem Empodecles of Etna. The lines remind all of us of the importance of living life fully each day, "Is it so small a thing, To have enjoyed the sun, / To have lived light in the Spring, / To have thought, to have done; / To have advanced true friends, . . . ."

Many of us who are in our sixties and enjoying the retirement we have worked all our lives for have been bombarded in recent weeks with a lot of scare tactics relating to end of life issues. We hear that Medicare will be rationed, waits to see doctors will be lengthy, and perhaps nursing home care will be eliminated with the proposed Medicaid cuts. I guess at this point I am ambivalent on some of the issues. For example, my father-in-law is now ninety-two and living in an assisted living facility in Wichita. During the past twenty-five years, he has probably had just about every medical procedure that a human being can endure--all in an effort to extend his life forever. While I know doctors are committed to extending life, I wonder if we extend it far too long at times, especially when I think of my friend Connie who died of a brain tumor at age fifty. Upon diagnosis, the doctor gave her six months to live with no treatment; she died in five months after enduring massive radiation treatments. I ask myself, "Would her final months have been better with no radical treatment?"

As far as myself, I have already indicated to my family that I want no extended end of life treatments when a diagnosis comes that says my time on earth is ending. I hope to die with dignity, reflecting upon the wonderful memories of this life. As Arnold reminded us in his poem, I have enjoyed many wonderful vacations, I have raised my family in the spring of my life, I have considered many issues thoughtfully, I have worked over forty years, and I have dearly loved both family and friends. But . . . I don't want to cling to this life since, as a believer, I look forward to a future life.