Fact – we all have two choices in life; to live to a ripe old age, or to die. Wait, that's not true. In this country we do NOT have a legal choice to die. In fact, doctors and hospitals will do whatever they can to keep human bodies “alive” for years, even if they have to be plugged into machines with tubes plugged into every orifice to do so.

There is a huge difference between quality of life and quantity of life, but since we have the medical knowledge and capacity to use machines to simulate body organs, keeping a person animated long after they would without these intrusive machines has become the norm. With Sarah Palin terrorizing the elderly with claims of “death panels” and town hall meeting turning into panic events, the new debate regarding Obama's heath care bill has turned into his plan to “kill grandma”, when the cost to keep grandma alive becomes too high.

Well, maybe that's not such a bad idea. Just because we can do something, that does not necessarily mean that we must.

Pulling the plug, so to speak, is never an easy decision for family members to make. Coma patients have been hooked up to machines for decades because the family holds on to some unrealistic fantasy that their loved one will miraculously wake up one day and be the same person they were before. “Miracle” recovery television shows don't help the delusion, but try telling a grieving mother or daughter that the show they watched on Lifetime was a script and the patient who miraculously recovered was an actor who was never sick in the first place, and they'll cry over their rosary and insist that God will someone answer their prayers.

Meanwhile, the only ones who prayers are being answered are the hospitals, the nursing homes and the doctors who make millions off the false hopes of these desperate families.

Life is precious, but it is not eternal. We are mortal. We get sick, and we die. Sometimes the brain ages faster than the other organs and once it outlives its time, dementia overtakes the body.

So, who decides when to say the final good-bye? And at what cost?

No one wants to put a price tag on a life, but it is a fact that the longer one lives, the more medical services they are going to need and the more expensive it is going to be. The longer we use medical technology to keep bodies alive, the more the bills are going to pile up, so the medical community wants to keep those bodies alive until the very last drop of cash is drained from the family's bank account. Let's keep the sick and elderly locked away in nursing homes, slumped over a wheelchair, drooling and urinating uncontrollably, and keep pumping them full of expensive drugs, especially if their insurance or the government pays the bill.

So, why not have a cut-off point? Let's pick an age to cut off insurance payments, maybe 84, 94, 101? Is it really more merciful to keep these nearly dead bodies alive then it is to let them die

We can't keep sick people on the public toll forever, can we? The insurance companies don't seem to think so when they decide which claim they'll pay for and which one they'll deny, or which prescription drug will be covered and which one won't. I don't know of any insurance company that pays for Viagra.

Doctors swear an oath to do no harm, maybe it's time we force the insurance companies to do the same.

Or maybe we should just kill grandma.

Fact – we all have two choices in life; to live to a ripe old age, or to die. Wait, that's not true. In this country we do NOT have a legal choice to die. In fact, doctors and hospitals will do whatever they can to keep human bodies “alive” for years, even if they have to be plugged into machines with tubes plugged into every orifice to do so.

There is a huge difference between quality of life and quantity of life, but since we have the medical knowledge and capacity to use machines to simulate body organs, keeping a person animated long after they would without these intrusive machines has become the norm. With Sarah Palin terrorizing the elderly with claims of “death panels” and town hall meeting turning into panic events, the new debate regarding Obama's heath care bill has turned into his plan to “kill grandma”, when the cost to keep grandma alive becomes too high.

Well, maybe that's not such a bad idea. Just because we can do something, that does not necessarily mean that we must.

Pulling the plug, so to speak, is never an easy decision for family members to make. Coma patients have been hooked up to machines for decades because the family holds on to some unrealistic fantasy that their loved one will miraculously wake up one day and be the same person they were before. “Miracle” recovery television shows don't help the delusion, but try telling a grieving mother or daughter that the show they watched on Lifetime was a script and the patient who miraculously recovered was an actor who was never sick in the first place, and they'll cry over their rosary and insist that God will someone answer their prayers.

Meanwhile, the only ones who prayers are being answered are the hospitals, the nursing homes and the doctors who make millions off the false hopes of these desperate families.

Life is precious, but it is not eternal. We are mortal. We get sick, and we die. Sometimes the brain ages faster than the other organs and once it outlives its time, dementia overtakes the body.

So, who decides when to say the final good-bye? And at what cost?

No one wants to put a price tag on a life, but it is a fact that the longer one lives, the more medical services they are going to need and the more expensive it is going to be. The longer we use medical technology to keep bodies alive, the more the bills are going to pile up, so the medical community wants to keep those bodies alive until the very last drop of cash is drained from the family's bank account. Let's keep the sick and elderly locked away in nursing homes, slumped over a wheelchair, drooling and urinating uncontrollably, and keep pumping them full of expensive drugs, especially if their insurance or the government pays the bill.

So, why not have a cut-off point? Let's pick an age to cut off insurance payments, maybe 84, 94, 101? Is it really more merciful to keep these nearly dead bodies alive then it is to let them die

We can't keep sick people on the public toll forever, can we? The insurance companies don't seem to think so when they decide which claim they'll pay for and which one they'll deny, or which prescription drug will be covered and which one won't.

I don't know of any insurance company that pays for Viagra.

Doctors swear an oath to do no harm, maybe it's time we force the insurance companies to do the same.

Or maybe we should just kill grandma.