A Doctor’s Will Prof. Dr. BM Hegde Some of our unlettered, but wise, villagers live up to 100 years without any medical check-up Doctors and their patients are alike in all respects: except their attitude towards modern medical interventions. While 90%of dying patients in America get their last rites while still alive in the intensive care units (ICUs), a meagre 5% doctors ask for those futile terminal rites. Why this wide variation?
Doctors don’t want to die: they want to live. But they know enough about modern medicine to know its limits. And they know enough about death to know what all people fear most: dying in pain and dying alone. They’ve talked of this with their families. And they want to be sure, when the time comes, that no ‘heroic’ measures will happen; that they will never experience—during their last moments on earth—someone breaking their ribs in an attempt to revive…
