Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States of America, died in 2004 at the age of 93 at his home surrounded by his family. He had dementia which he lived with for nine years. His wife, Nancy Reagan, called his last moments of a peaceful death “the greatest gift” he could have given her. Compare this with the way India’s former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee died in 2018, nine years after a stroke that had left him non-ambulant. The last 35 days of his life were spent in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. He died on artificial life support systems.
Death is inevitable, the one certainty in life. When the time comes, and if you have an incurable disease, how would you like to go? Would you prefer your bed in your home, with your loved ones around you? Or would you prefer being all alone in an intensive care unit (ICU) with a tube in every orifice, hooked to machines that measure the functioning of every vital organ in your body, with each malfunctioning organ supported artificially?
