Quality of Life, Assisted Prolongation of Life, and End of Life Issues

Abstract

Savants in the field of health economics have coined some highly meaningful catchphrases over the past couple of decades. One such term is the impact of disease on human health or, more specifically, the global burden of disease on health. It has many nuances and ramifications in a person’s working life and indeed on the community in general. No doubt there are a fair number of clinical conditions that cause significant morbidity and incapacity to those who sufferer from it, resulting in loss of work and thus an economic burden on the people’s family and society. Some diehards may even cite an example of chronic intractable vasomotor rhinitis, which may indeed affect quality of life, with repeated bouts of sneezing, rhinorrhoea, and nasal stuffiness. But that is only a minor example compared to someone suffering with advanced motor neurone disease or painful sciatica.