This, would be, really very, ODD, because IF the medicines are advancing so quickly, then, naturally, there would be, many more ways to treat and to cure the incurable, wouldn’t it??? Translated…
The well-known doctor, Gawande, in his newest published work “Being Mortal”, discussed how every one of us would have to face the issues of aging, and dying, stressed that the ultimate goal of being human is to live well, with dignity, until the very LAST moment of one’s life.
What’s weird is, that in the advances of medicine, as well as the improvements to the economics, it’d become hard, for the elderly population, to die easily.
A Cure is Not Hard to Find, But, There are Limits to the Technologies
Recalling how back in the 1960s, when I first entered into the new field of oncology, when there are, progresses in cancer diagnoses and treatments, we can only offer some trial treatments to our patients, and, we weren’t, at all, sure, that we can, cure what our patients have. But, with the advances in medicine and technology, curing cancer is no longer an impossibility, after four, five decades to trials and experimentations, there are, so many new medication, new techniques, available to the professional medical nurses and doctors, for the treatment of cancer, and so, there are, more and more ways, to prolong the life of the patients, and, with this, the hopes and expectations of the patients are also, on the rise.
On the contrary, for this newer generation of doctors, if they couldn’t provide their patients with more options of treatment, then, it would be a medical failure, and, the patients are no longer, seeing that there’s a limit, to the development of medical advances, which would cause, over-treatments.
In these couple of year, although there were, numerous studies that showed, when the cancer patients had become terminal, if the doctors and the patients can discuss together, how to live out the rest of the life that one has, to accept the supportive way of care, the patients are found, to have, suffered less in the physical, as well as the psychological fronts, and, they’d shown a longer span of life, compared to those patients who go all out, in finding a cure for themselves, and they have a better life quality too. When the patient passed away, the loved ones would also find their way out of their own losses and sorrows too.
Too Much Treatment, Making the Patients Expect Too Much
Look at Death Straight On, and Finish Life in Dignity
Although a quarter of a century had passed, a lot of thoughts are, shifting. But, to date, we’re still, learning, how to pass on the bad news of life threatening instances. A step further, we’d also thought hard, on how to, guide the terminally ill, so they would be more willing to, plan out their final passage in life with dignity, with a team of medical experts. And, this sort of staring DEATH in the face, it’s very difficult, for not just the medical staff, or patients, as well as the members of the family.
Since how aging and death is something NONE of us can escape from, we’d needed everybody living in Taiwan, to work hard, to define for oneself, what it means, to live well. Then, let’s make an environment that advocate this here.
Because, with the longevity of man still on the increase, this, is an issue that we will all need to deal with one day, but, the subject of death is still, VERY tabooed, and so, the writer of this article hoped, to bring about awareness, that death is NOT to be feared, that if you still can, you should, plan out your final affairs ahead of time. But, because the promises of medical advance, it’d give off of this façade, that whatever it is that we’re diagnosed with CAN be cured, and so, we keep on, chasing that nonexistent, hadn’t-been-found cure, and, let the little time we have left on this earth go to waste, and, what, do you get, at the very end of your lives again??? EXACTLY!!!
Life, the Obstacle Course 