Ezekiel Emanuel hopes to die at age 75. At least that's the title of a controversial article he recently wrote for the Atlantic. Emanuel, the director of the Clinical Bioethics Department at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and head of the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, has obviously given this a lot of thought. If you read beyond the attention-getting headline, however, Emanuel is clear that he's not going to commit suicide at age 75. Rather, he'll just stop accepting life-extending interventions such as flu shots, preventative tests, chemotherapy and surgeries. In this case, it's a pretty safe bet he'll keep living well beyond age 75, when the odds of dying are roughly one in 25. His rationale for discontinuing life-extending measures? By age 75, Emanuel says he'll have lived a complete life. For instance, he'll have seen his children launched into the world and grandchildren born. He's concerned about the physical limitations that are inevitable as you age, including a loss of creativity and the ability to work and contribute to your family, society and the world. Read more http://www.cbsnews.com/news/do-you-...=Feed: CbsNewsEconwatch (Econwatch - CBS News)
