Replies

Like many, I would accept most of what is reported in that study as factual, but I would suggest that the conclusions drawn from it are dubious, at best. For example, only the costs of hospital “end of life” care are calculated, but actually everybody dies somewhere, somehow, and not necessarily in a hospital in a city where the costs are likely to be the highest. Many people choose not to embark on the end of life journey in the hospital, they may opt to follow the hospice route, or simply decline treatment and let things run their inevitable course. In addition, absent an advance directive, a medical power of attorney, or some such document, once the person is in the ambulance after 911 has been called, they are going to be kept alive by every means known to medicine, because nobody has the official status to say otherwise, and the person is likely to be under medication and would not be considered competent to make a judgment for themself. I fault the press for reporting this study so shallowly, particularly when a more thorough analysis could be very educational for the general public. The fact that it appears to pit black against white, however, trumps any modicum of journalistic common sense, and reinforces the widely held belief that journalism comes so close to rhyming with urinalism for a reason.