> "Doctors claim that patients aren’t ready for the bad news earlier, when they are still digesting their shocking predicament: that their lives have changed irretrievably; that their priorities, their future aspirations, their promises to their loved ones—both the explicit and, more important, the implicit ones—would go unfulfilled. They cite their own hesitations too. Doctors want to be purveyors of hope rather than despair, a motive sometimes attributed to compassion, sometimes to a starker concern that patients will find a new, more optimistic second opinion. "

This is absolute nonsense. Any person with basic maturity/intelligence would long have understood that any of us could die in any split second, and that the essence of the world is randomness and senselessness. Just accept this fact, relax and "don't care". I don't care on what day I die. What I care is if I have lived every day of my life to the fullest possible, and when I come to die I will not find that I haven’t lived. If I fulfill this, then even if I somehow suddenly face death tomorrow, I would be serene and happy to embrace it. On the contrary, if I could live for 1000 years but with every day wasted, I would be mad and I'd better take an Euthanasia. Here Ruth and her husband had the right attitude for life and they're totally worthy of applauds. There’s no point in doing a prolonged, painful, senseless and sure-to-be-defeated battle for just a few years of life. We all will die. What’s important is live every day to the best possible with determination, and accept with serenity what our current limitations can’t reach.