elaine's strange little world

I would argue that "Happy and feeling-well" vs. "miserable un-tortured" are just the optimist and pessimist viewpoints of the same thing. I have seen people go on to hospice care and be quite content and enjoy the time they have left (until generally the very end, month or so, where happiness becomes ample access to morphine), although I've also seen people going on hospice be miserable for the rest of their life. I find that those outcomes are strongly tied to perspective going in-- if you look at hospice as trying to maximize the quality of the time you have, you're generally happier than if you look at it as a consolation for giving up.

Steve