My 92-Year-Old Father Didn’t Need More Medical Care

Human beings are not mere objects on a medical conveyor belt.  They have God-given dignity and that dignity must be protected, particularly during times of serious illness.  So said Aging with Dignity founder Jim Towey some 25 years ago.  This simple principle has guided our efforts on behalf of all patients and the families who love them.

In this account, Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, a noted physician and bioethicist, wondered why the health care system wanted to aggressively treat his 92-year-old father with a terminal condition.  “It has less to do with physicians’ and hospitals’ financial incentives to admit more patients and perform more medical interventions, and more to do with the effort required to order and provide human care,” he writes.  The key is to listen to the patient and to conform the treatment with the need.

Read More:  The Atlantic