<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><BASE
href=http://www.femtopizza.net/ head <>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2600.0" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY text=black bgColor=white>
<DIV>This <A
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/30/health/policy/30LIFE.html">New York
Times</A> article details the process of dying and what happens to the body and
mind as a person dies. As deaths from heart attacks decline and life expectancy
rises, death has become a protracted process for more and more people.
Accompanying this trend is a growing need for medical professionals and families
to understand what happens during the last weeks, days and hours of life and
what kind of action, or inaction, is most likely to bring a comfortable,
peaceful, even beautiful end. <BR>Active dying, the process of total body system
failure, usually occurs over a period of 10 to 14 days, although it can take as
little as 24 hours. As someone nears the end of life, it is not unusual to turn
inward and become less communicative, even as much as three months before death.
Loved ones should not confuse this withdrawal with rejection. Rather, she said,
it reflects the dying person's need to leave the outer world behind and focus on
inner contemplation. Dying patients may also moan or grunt as they breathe, but
rarely is this a sign of pain, she noted. Appropriate pain relief should always
be provided because a patient in pain cannot communicate effectively or die
peacefully. There is no evidence that pain-relieving drugs hastened death.
<BR>This is a very interesting article, the one thing I do not like is the
original title: "Facing Up to the Inevitable, in Search of a Good Death". I do
not think it will stay inevitable for long: there are indications that someday
science will be able to avoid ageing and death.</DIV></BODY></HTML>