Nearly half of the physicians did not know their terminally ill patients' wishes regarding cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In a year-long review, an IOM committee found that 40 percent to 80 percent of patients with cancer, AIDS, and other diseases reported inadequately treated pain. In fact, a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 56 percent of deaths in the United States occur in hospitals and 19 percent in nursing homes. About 21 percent of people die at home, and a fraction of these receive hospice services. Judy Laber, clinical program manager for The James' hospice service, surmises that many people don't want to discuss hospice because it acknowledges their mortality.
Death is something that only happens to other people.
There seems to be a tendency to not face reality until reality is staring you in the face. Things like that make it seem as though we'll always be saved, that given the right technology, we won't die. There are so many ways of prolonging life that we've almost developed a sense of immortality. In Canada, death is negotiable. In California, death is optional.