I didn’t see what Daschle actually said, but I have read that an enormous amount of money is spent on the final six months of many people’s lives, well past the point where any further quality of life is possible. I assume that was what he was criticizing. I agree (and I am 72, so quite an interested party to the discussion). On the other hand, I use 5 prescriptions daily that I expect I will have to use till the end and I am not prepared to give them up since I still have a decent quality of life. I also have a pacemaker. But I don’t want to be hooked up to pumps and have extraordinary measures.
My mother spent the last three months of her life hooked up to feeding tubes, intravenous tubes and had no real consciousness. The first time she got pneumonia she underwent some kind of apparently (from her reaction) painful procedure of having her lungs vacuumed. The second time, my stepfather said that enough was enough and she was permitted to die.