I've watched people, whether spouses or adult children, pull out all the stops to keep a loved one alive. When someone is leaving, ie. dying, it's natural to want to halt the process with interventions such as taking trips, going to social events, encouraging if not forcing the person to eat. All of this frantic activity is about the person engaging in it; I'm not convinced that it's at all helpful to the terminal individual. Rather than employing every possible intervention, incurring lots of expense, and expending precious energy on the impossible, I'd prefer to allow my body to do what it's meant to do, as gently and with as much dignity as possible. The Victorians used to describe a peaceful demise as a "good death." I don't want to sentimentalize what is incredibly difficult and wrenching, but sometimes it's time to stop trying to alter the course of nature.