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A favorite joke of actuaries:
"Actuaries the world over are the same. They
like to tell you how many people are going to die next year.
Except the
actuaries from Sicily. They like to tell you the names."
You may wonder, why a website devoted to population stabilization
has pages
devoted to mortality and life spans. If you clicked on the "Mortality & Life
Spans--Facts" button, you know increasing
life spans is one factor
contributing
to increasing population in some countries. As medical science
becomes
increasingly mechanized and adept at extending life, the
U.S. will spend an
increasing percentage of its Medicare dollars on the last
years of patients'
lives,
often to the detriment of patients as well as to Medicare.
If you have spent time in convalescent hospitals or in Emergency
Rooms, you
may have had occasion to ask yourself, "I
wonder if that person really wants
to
remain alive?" or "I
wonder if doctors are prolonging that person's
life
or
simply prolonging his death?"
If you have ever asked such questions about others or if you
have ever considered how you would want to be cared for at the
end of your life, you should know there are organizations working
to ensure people have the right to make their own choices about
end-of-life care and treatment. To learn more about one of these
organizations, please click on Compassion
& Choices. |
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