CHART OF THE DAY: There Are Far Better Places To Die Than America
Courtesy of at Vincent Fernando and Kamelia Angelova at Clusterstock
A morbid survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit ranks countries by which would be the best place for a person to pass away. Basically, they’ve examined end-of-life care across the world, one area where the U.S. notoriously spends a fortune on.
Thing is, when it comes to ‘quality of death’ (end of life care), the U.S. is halfway down this list, and Britain takes the top slot.
For all the health-care system’s faults, British doctors tend to be honest about prognoses. The mortally ill get plentiful pain killers. A well-established hospice movement cares for people near death, although only 4% of deaths occur in them. For similar reasons, Australia and New Zealand rank highly too.
China, Russia, Brazil, and India sit near the very bottom of the Economist’s 40-nation ranking, mostly due to a lack of respect for ‘dignity in death’. Still, if you’re sufficiently wealthy then you can probably pay your way to a decent passing anywhere.
