Ximena Esparza, 2

While catching up with the Radiolab episodes I had missed, I was very intrigued by the episode titled "The Bitter End." A group of doctors were surveyed on various medical procedures and their answers were rather surprising. They said they would not want CPR, dialysis, ventilation, chemotherapy, surgery, invasive te sting, feeding tube, nor antibiotics, among others. Regular people were given the same survey and the majority said they would want all the procedures done to be kept alive.
All the doctors agreed on the same thing, using any of those procedures is the most unnatural and inhumane thing to do to anyone. It is going against the natural processes of the body; making it painful and simply wrong. This made me think about W. S. Merwin's poem Thanks and how it creates a space in which we become aware of our lives and how thankful we should be. Our bodies are constantly working fine and it is only when something goes wrong that we can truly appreciate being healthy.

Radiolab - The Bitter End