HOW DO PHYSICIANS WANT TO DIE?
When you ask people how they’d like to die, most will say that they want to die quickly, painlessly, and peacefully… preferably in their sleep.
But, if you ask them whether they would want various types of interventions, were they on the cusp of death and already living a low-quality of life, they typically say “yes,” “yes,” and “can I have some more please.” Blood transfusions, feeding tubes, invasive testing, chemotherapy, dialysis, ventilation, and chest pumping CPR. Most people say “yes.”
But not physicians. Doctors, it turns out, overwhelmingly say “no.”
Interesting to see that those individuals that perform these procedures on people to help save, extend, or make lives more comfortable would choose not to have those same procedures performed on themselves. The author emphasizes that physicians, because of performing these procedures, are more aware of how horrible they can be while at the same time understanding that the procedures are not as effective as most non-physicians believe. Physicians never reached a 20% for ‘Yes’ to any procedure, except pain medication.
By Lisa Wade over at Sociological Images