Ethical Dilemma

Throughout the health care system the question of ethical decision making, continues to be a burden in the minds of health care workers. It seems that in today's health care system we have lost the line between saving lives and merely prolonging death. Is it right to offer all medical treatments, regardless of how invasive they are, to every person with any disease? Take for example a patient who is suffering from terminal end stage multiple sclerosis that is given a tracheostomy and requires 24 hour -a- day mechanical ventilation. Imagine a world where everyday all you do is stare at the same four taupe coloured walls and hear the gentle humming sound of the ventilator. Everyday your mind forgets more and more until you cannot even remember where you are. Family members visit when they can, but as the days move on they seem to visit less. It is unfortunate that today, in health care, we offer so many interventions but do we every stop to think if it's right. Just because we have the technology to provide medical treatments does not always mean we should. Sometimes there really are things in this world that truly are a fate worse than death.