Is Modern Medicine keeping the Elderly Living too Long?

Before you answer think about it. Death is inevitable and our society has limited money for aiding those without benefits. Our welfare systems are in danger of ending because people r living longer yet not adding to society. My grandmom is going to get a pacemaker and she just turned 86! She lays in bed all day and has a urine bag she needs emptied. She has been smoking ever since she was 15. She doesn't have much more time in this world and i don't understand why the welfare system should spend some $100,000 on an 86 year old woman when there are others that are younger and can't receive life saving medicine or treatment because there isn't enough money.

SS is going to end because of this. I'd rather live to be 70 and healthy, than to 90 and living like Darth Vader. I strongly believe there is a time to live and a time to die; death is inevitable why prolong it just to spend a few extra miserable years on earth and burden society and your family? When do you pull the plug?

yea i understand, i couldnt live a life where i dont really live. unless they find ways for longer and healthier life. id say its time the pull the plug when you are suffering and there insnt a chance of you getting better. l

I don't think "modern medicine" is keeping the elderly alive too long. The world population is aging, but a lot of that has to do with a decline in fertility and birth rates.

I don't believe that anyone should have the choice to decide when it is time for someone else to die. It would be pretty unfair to your grandma to refuse her treatment just because you judge her quality of life to be low or think her time is up.

You say now that you would rather live to be 70 and healthy but if you were really in the situation of being incapacitated at an old age and there was a chance of full recuperation you might want someone to give you the benefit of the doubt rather than "pull the plug" because they think you have lived long enough.