A study has recently been published in the medical journal BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care by researchers from Radboud University Medical Centre. The same claims that strategies for end of life care need to be reconsidered by all European countries, as per a report.

The reason behind the same is the growing ageing population in the Netherlands, the report finds. Death certificates27 EU countries from 4.8 million people were looked at by the team, which led it discover that elderly deaths from cancer and other chronic diseases are a considerable burden on society only.

42% of all deaths is contributed by these along with deaths from heart failure, chronic liver failure, dementia, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease. And besides the same, hundreds face and suffer a lot of pain, anxiety and confusion before dying.

It is being said that this burden should be fought with new strategies to be made by policy makers. Such people should be allowed and supported when they wish not to live.

"Free social care and 24/7 community nursing for people in the last weeks and months of their lives would go a long way to making this choice a reality", said Macmillan Cancer Support's social care programme manager Tes Smith.