A defining moment comes when you, as a family member, realize you are no longer prolonging a loved one's life but prolonging your loved one's dying process.
I know from watching the prolonged deaths of loved ones that most medical interventions are doled out in small bites -- today's breathing tube follows last week's feeding tube which came on the heels of this or that new technology -- all of which makes it hard to know when to wave the white flag of surrender.
But, in a nation where the majority of inmates are serving time for drug crimes, the most common victims appear to be inmates' own families, who certainly do not benefit from their loved one's prolonged unemployment, and who suffer from disproportionately high levels of poverty.
For women, the cherry-popping arc typically revolves around not a madcap search for a sexual partner, but around a tender deflowering at the hands of a great love, often after a prolonged should I/shouldn't I internal struggle.
The families of those on board Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 when it was shot down have spoken of their hopes that suggestions following the report into the crash are accurate, and their loved ones did not suffer prolonged and agonising deaths.
Buyers these days love minimalist abstraction that does not require prolonged inspection, particularly when it makes its impact felt from far away.
I often ask families of patients who are struggling with what to do about their loved one's condition whether we are prolonging life or prolonging death.
Though Francis had not been a faithful husband, Maria Theresa never wavered in her love, and his sudden death in 1765 plunged her into prolonged grief.
Aggressive medical interventions in the setting of terminal illness do not prolong life, but they do increase the suffering of patients and their loved ones.
Marriage isn't the process of prolonging the life of love, but of mummifying the corpse.-H.L. MENCKEN.
