My wife works with Alzheimers patients as a registered nurse.  It's unfortunate but she will occasionally have residents who are 'full code', meaning that their families require that everything possible be done to keep the resident alive.  She believes in comfort care to minimize pain but she doesn't believe in euthanizing anyone...although, she supports the use of morphine which has the end result of hastening death while relieving pain. 

Her aunt recently passed away and Tammy was instrumental in helping her family to allow themselves to let her go.  Dorothy was in her 80s and had suffered a massive stroke.  The doctors put a nasal feeding tube in her and wanted to surgically put a gastric tube into her stomach.  The gastric tube could have kept her alive for possibly years to come.  Once the tube is in place I think it would have been hard to have it removed to allow her to die more naturally.  Dorothy's sons felt they needed to do everything possible to keep her alive and were worried about doing the wrong thing.  Dorothy was able to in the end communicate to Tammy to let her go.  That's all her sons needed to hear.  She was eased out of this world with morphine and died peacefully and wasn't left to lie in agony for weeks or months maybe longer with a feeding tube.

New drugs and technologies are being developed all the time which can prolong our lives but at significant cost.  At what point do you embrace your demise and stop trying to prevent it? 

The euthanasia concept is troubling to me, Gene.  I can somewhat understand your support of the practice providing you're reserving it for someone near the end of the line which I think is your intent.  I personally like my wife's comfort care approach better.  I wonder how Holland deals with a depressed person who simply no longer wishes to live and requests to be euthanized?  I honestly haven't given it much thought.

Kevin g