It's probably a cognitive bias that would not be hard to correct by making arrangements in advance. I've made it clear to lots of people that I'd much rather be killed cheaply than be a burden to everyone -- almost certainly not the choice I'd make in the last few days of my life.
It might help for insurance companies to make it even more broad: to ask people "Do you think people should spend tens of thousands of dollars on living another agonizing week, or that they should die?" and use the customer's general answer as a guide in specific circumstances.
I believe that the most precious thing in our lives is being alive, and I spit in the face of anyone who is cowardly enough to give up on his life at any point, past, present or future.
Sorry for being harsh, but that's how I feel about it.
Yes, spend every resource on the planet to keep me alive for one more second.
Well, I guess that's a sustainable strategy as long as only one person pursues it, and everyone else is cool with it.
I don't know what to think of a moral system that dissolves all rights when one practitioner really, really wants something. Seems like nihilism with a smiley face.
I wouldn't call it nihilism. Nihilism says existence is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. I say the opposite.
To each human being, existence has infinite value, to the extent that nothing else matters.
Of course, that's an extreme statement, and there might be circumstances where even with such beliefs, one decides that something else is of more value (or, conversely, that life loses its value if a life-ending action is not taken). But the point is that you start from a standpoint of infinite value, which makes any declaration that "I don't want people to spend tens of thousands of dollars to keep me alive" completely obscene, a bit like if someone said they don't want to spend $1 to stop you from going blind.
I think you underestimate the power of denial, as I did before I read Sherwin Nuland's book, How We Die. In a lot of terminal cases, neither the patient nor the patient's family know that the case is hopeless, because the doctors don't want to break the news, and may not have accepted it themselves, since doctors often tend to regard saving the patient's life as a matter of success and failure and will try nearly anything not to fail. There are clear-cut cases, but most people die in cases where the probability of recovery is very low but not zero.
It might help for insurance companies to make it even more broad: to ask people "Do you think people should spend tens of thousands of dollars on living another agonizing week, or that they should die?" and use the customer's general answer as a guide in specific circumstances.