My post may have been callous, freightdawg, but it was not meant to put a price on human life. Unfortunately, sometimes family want to keep a person on life support against a doctor's advice. Seems to me that the doctor is in the best position to judge if a person has no chance of recovery or is in so much pain that it would be cruel to prolong medical care.

If the family is keeping a person alive based only on religious beliefs and against a doctor's advice, they can do it at their own expense, not mine. If this was Canadian healthcare, I'd definitely consider it elective.