Culling the Herd

A high school acquaintance of mine just lost her ninety-one year old father. He had been diagnosed with undifferentiated lung cancer, and the family accepted the verdict of his treatment team that curative efforts would not be worth pursuing and opted for the "comfort care" that was recommended. It seems medical providers want to do as little as possible for patients once they have reached a certain chronological age, where the goal ceases to be preserving life but becomes instead easing death. With this mentality, elderly Americans are treated little better than downer cattle. Our seniors deserve better.