Interesting. You and I have similar backgrounds (patient care and biomedical research) but it sounds like we've come to opposing conclusions.

Yes, indeed, society is about more than individuals. Which is why most of our expenses for medical care will come at the end of life, for those who desire it, and that money will come out of a pool (whether private insurance or some public health plan) and we have to accept this, because there is no other sane option.

how do you propose to pay for it?

The same way we're paying for it now, of course. Remember, this isn't a debate about "should we pay for expensive EOL care," it's a debate about "we pay a lot for EOL care right now, should we keep doing it." To which my answer is pretty clear, I think.

why are only YOU entitled?

What made you think I'm talking about myself? I'm 40 years old, in reasonably good health, and based on my family's history of longevity I have another 50 years or so before I have to make these decisions. In the meantime, I have no problem whatsoever with a portion of my tax dollars going to pay for intensive EOL care for those who want it. I hope those of my grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's generation will feel the same. There's no philosophical inconsistency here.

I think it's interesting that every paramedic and nurse who's posted so far (that I've seen) says they would choose quality over quantity. That is, the people who actually see death on a regular basis accept that it's a natural process and usually preferable to the intubated, ventillated, central-lined, unaware existence that costs, quite literally, tens of thousands of dollars per day for very little life extension.

Oookay. As I stated, I have a background in patient care (military medic and civilian EMT) and I've seen plenty of death, so don't make assumptions about what people do and don't know, okay? I also call your attention to PrimaryCareDoc's letter. And if you have the medical experience you claim, you cannot possibly be unaware that there are many, many people within the health care community who feel that heroic EOL measures are generally necessary and desirable.

And again ... I've seen plenty of death and you say you have too. Fine. Then you know as well as I do that death without intensive care is very often just as painful and messy and undignified as anything that happens in the ICU. Do you really think that the poor Africans you worked with, dying of easily preventable and/or treatable diseases, were saying to themselves, "Well at least I'm not in America with all those horrible tubes and wires hooked up to me!" Death in a modern hospital is horrible, indeed. So is death anywhere.

This is not some matter where the wise medical clergy needs to explain The Truth to the naive patient congregation. Everyone dies, and barring sudden death by violence or heart attack or massive stroke, everyone needs to make decisions about how they will die. No one's part in this debate is any less than anyone else's.

I am not sure about the scientist in question, but Benfer seems eager to dismiss him based on the fact she dislikes the social implications of his conclusions... a profoundly unscientific and unprofessional approach altogether.

No, she's pointing out that Brody's biases appear to have influenced his conclusions. There's "a profoundly unscientific and unprofessional approach" going on here, all right, but not on Benfer's part. Here's a hint: any time anyone brags about how "politically incorrect" they are, it's a sure sign that they're about to hand you a line of propaganda with only the most tenuous connection to reality.

... when it comes to casual disregard for traffic laws WRT stop signs, stop lights, and signaling is a liar.

Period. You are lying, and you know you're lying.

Maybe once a year I see a car driver roll up to a red light, stop, look around, and then start up again and go right through the intersection while the light is still red. With bicyclists, I see this behavior several times a week. And given that there are at least ten times as many cars on the road than bicycles, this means bicyclists are several hundred times as likely to do this as drivers.

I have nothing against bicyclists. I'm happy to share the road. But it has to go both ways, and the self-righteous bicyclists who loudly defend their illegal and hazardous behavior (especially when, like aveutter, they then turn around and compare other people on the road such as skateboarders to wild animals!) go a long way toward erasing that feeling.

Sounds like you need to work on your marriage.

If Clinton (or anyone else) were to make a pass at your wife, so what? She's a grown woman, right? She can say no. Do you think she wouldn't? Or do you think that she's such a helpless imbecile that she can't be trusted to make her own decisions without you around to keep her in line?

As for your daughter, if she's an adult, then she can make her own decisions too. And if not, well, I don't think even the most deranged right-wing Clinton-bashers ever claimed that the guy is a pedophile.

A former spook tells me that in his day, Blackwater was known in the intel community as "The Army of Northern Virginia." Well, despite my general lack of sympathy for the Confederate cause and dislike of the Cult of St. Bobby, I have to agree with a number of Southerners of my close acquaintance that Lee wouldn't have tolerated such men under his command. Erik Prince is more comparable to Quantrill or Forrest.

Oh yeah, that's right, we weren't paying those guys.