Thank god to the broken medicare system, he is financially a burden to the state. However, our frequent interaction with him does bring forth the issue of how long should a person be put on a life-maintenance mode? Financial burden to the state aside, he becomes an emotional burden and time dump for the family.
People who are sick for a long time, have no hope of ever recovering, and live on for the sake of living on are very different from people who still have a soul and spiritual growth. My father-in-law is so obsessed with the notion of living that he keeps a diary that details his pulse, blood pressure, oxygen readings, etc every hour. Is that a life worth living? I am not sure.