How Much is too Much?

When it comes to life or death, how much does it take to make a decision? With all the technology around in the hospitals these days, it has become a belief that death is preventable. But does that mean that death is in some way a failure? In a recent article in Vancouver’s Globe and Mail newspaper, a reporter follows the lives of a 20 bed unit at Sunnybrook Critical Care Center for two-and-a-half months. This center has more intensive care units than any other facility in Canada. These kinds of places are a last chance for some people who have suffered severely traumatic injuries.

The 21^st Century way to die is to listen to the beeping of the machine that makes a noise every time your heart pounds. Everyday there is a constant search for new technologies to keep people alive, but why do we do it? If we are dying, isn’t it

just nature taking its course? Everyone dies eventually by why do we try and keep death at bay. We do everything we can to stop death when it is completely natural. Yes, I do understand what places such Sunnybrook do, they give people another chance to live life but the obstacles that these people go through is beyond normal. Patients spend months here just so they can be told whether or not they will live if without the full dose of morphine or whatever other drug is keeping them alive. When will the world full of brilliant minds decide when to stop creating machines that keep people alive with help of drugs and sometimes without ever having the chance to think for themselves again? I understand that some people want this but at some point the consequences of living like this will come to play.

“Innovation when it matters most” these innovations are saving people but killing them too. I’ll let you decide what you would want to do, but I believe that my take on this matter is clear.