I read Leaving and Loving the Good Life by Helen Nearing about Scott Nearing's death, and it was an interesting story--a point-by-point account of his death from her POV as his wife. The reasoning for them was, as I remember, Scott saying he was ready to die, and Helen suggested he stop eating, because that's what animals do--just crawl off in the woods and stop eating. So it seemed like, as Tybee says, Nature's Way to them, and that's what he did when he turned 100. Tybee, I think I vaguely remember him going to a nursing home.
I think protracted, expensive deaths are painful to all on many counts.