Thinking about dying
This is not exactly a cheerful topic, but here’s an interesting press release about research at the University of Michigan into how people feel about various end-of-life matters. Researchers used a number of focus groups to study the feelings of different groups (men, women, Hispanics, African Americans, whites, Arab Americans) about things like assisted suicide, medical intervention at the end of life, and hospice care versus being cared for at home. There were some big cultural and gender differences; Arab Americans, for example, generally feel that it’s the family’s responsibility to take care of them in their final illness, whereas Americans do not feel that way. All 73 focus group participants were over the age of 50, so they presumably had some experience with parents or other family members dying and were old enough to be able to think realistically about what they would want when it’s their turn. It’s interesting to see the cultural trends, although I’m sure that’s only part of the story when an individual faces these kinds of decisions. I wonder if all these people went out to talk to their lawyers and draw up living wills and such after examining their own possible futures.
