THE PACEMAKERModern medicine is increasingly obsessed with technology intended to prolong the quantity and quality of a person's life. This has given rise to a multi-billion dollar biomedical industry as well as a complex and diverse bioethical debate regarding medical intervention and patient rights as it relates to elderly care and “end of life” choices. Today, approximately 3 million people worldwide have pacemakers and pacemakers. an estimated 600,000 people receive a pacemaker each year. Rune Elmqvist and surgeon Ake Senning in Sweden successfully implanted the pacemaker or artificial heart in 1958, although American Drs. William Chardack and Andrew Gage licensed their modified version in 1960. The pacemaker is a small mechanism placed in the chest or abdomen to aid the process of controlling abnormal heart rhythms or arrhythmias. The pacemaker uses electrical impulses to encourage the heart to beat at a normal rate. “In a healthy heart, the heartbeat begins in the right atrium, in a group of special heart cells called the sinoatrial node (or sinus). These cells act as a natural pacemaker for the heart. The pacemaker sends an electrical signal (pulse) that travels throughout the heart along electrical pathways. These pathways transmit the signal from the upper chambers to the lower chambers of the heart, which causes the heart muscle to contract. Regular, rhythmic electrical signals allow the heart to pump blood to the lungs and body. (June 2, 2011. E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine) Source: Permanent Pacemakers. Digital image. Stanford Medicine. Stanford Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, April 5, 2013. Web. May 20, 2014. The two most common causes of irregular heartbeat are bradycardia... middle of paper ...... aging body? How can we care for the growing number of elderly people housed in retirement homes, with artificial devices implanted as the only way to keep them alive? How will society cope with the rising costs of other aging-related diseases, such as artificially prolonged dementia and cancer? There are many cases where family members and loved ones question the role of artificial pacemakers and medical interventions in achieving a peaceful death for those at the end of life. stages of the disease. We must ask whether patients and their families are encouraged to make an informed decision regarding this aspect of life extension before embarking on pacemaker surgery, as the function of pacemakers can easily change from life-saving devices to devices that cause unnecessary and unnecessary suffering. end-of-life patient care.