A mental level of finality

There is a mental level of finality involved in filling out the
papers at at nursing home to eliminate medical intervention in the
care of a patient. To realize in your head that no medical
intervention is useful is not to realize it in your heart. Making the
correct choices for another person is not easy but participating in
extending suffering is far worse. Living an honorable life while
watching another's life ebb away is distressing. Being prepared for
something you have never experienced is impossible. If death is a
sleep with no pain, why do we try to avoid it, even at the end?