In this day of advanced technology, high speed everything, and the need for the most expensive quality its no wonder that those who are vegetated are still living a lie ("Living at all costs is a flaw of our Western society," March 3). I was born with a neural tube defect called Spina Bifida; I grew up defying the odds of living as a handicap. Those in who are in a vegetative state aren't the same, and sadly, their loved ones are living the lie that they will break the odds and recover like in the television or movies. But life isn't the movies, thus making it wrong to keep them running on false dreams. In all honesty, these people who are on life support aren't there at all; they've moved on, and what's keeping their bodies here is those machines.

Another way of looking at this is the doctors and their promises of improvement. Humans have the will power to defeat illnesses of any kind on their own; it's our reliance on dozens of medicines and new treatment ideas and thousands of dollars spent on something that should just run its own course. People in this society are truly afraid of death, in my personal opinion. They have anxiety over what they could have done in their life to change what illness they have. These illnesses, whether it's cancer or influenza or heart attack, it ran its course for hundreds of years prior to the movement of medical research. I am forced to live in this body with Spina Bifida, but I don't let it take control of my life. If I ever became in the state of mind as these poor persons, living off of a machine, consuming every cent of my family's money and living a lie, I would choose death.

This society has lost every value of life that was brought to this country over a hundred years ago. There's no pride or dignity in what is natural anymore. Why continue living in constant grief when we should honor those who did the best they could in their lives and fight for those who still have a chance to live?