Good food for thought
@Patchouli and heavy topic.
I've seen both sides of this and feel it is a deeply personal choice.
I've taken care of people who have sought natural remedies sold by snake oil salesman promising a cure - who died. At the end of their life they were begging for chemo. It was so unfortunate because a lot of times it is a curable cancer with chemo/radiation.
I've taken care of people who have taken a palliative approach to their cancer and just want to be home, only seek hospital care if they need respite.
Pain and fear are always an issue at the end, no matter what approach you take. Fear of the unknown, fear to leave your family, etc. Rare is the case where this doesn't happen.
My mom had lymphoma with a lung mass in addition to melanoma. Her friends all told her to see some natural remedy guru, I had her undergo surgery to remove the mass and chemo for the lymphoma. She was eventually cured after completing several cycles of chemo. Her friend (same age as her) that had a tumor next to her eye died within a year after doing some raw food/juice diet and expensive supplements sold by this guru. Before my mom started down this path, we had a conversation about side effects of chemo (brain fog, etc) and if that was an acceptable trade off ie..if she could live with this.
My husband (a doctor) hasn't seen a doctor in years. Doesn't get colonoscopies because colon cancer doesn't run in his family. I haven't seen a doctor in 5 years, other than dermatologist for a skin check since melanoma runs in my family.
People are healthy until they aren't. I've seen 80-90 year olds who have never gone to the doctor and are fine. Other 40-50 year olds with so many chronic conditions and are so sickly they might as well be 90. I've seen people come in with a cardiac arrest due to a heart attack who were just as their cardiologist's office yesterday, and I've seen others who never saw a doctor in their life because "they were healthy". I've seen healthy vegans have severe blockages in their coronaries. The people that do everything right are often the ones who still end up with cancers, etc, no matter how they eat or abstain from smoking/alcohol.
The ones that baffle me though are the people who come in and refuse everything...so why did you exactly come into the hospital then?
Bottom line, extremely personal choice and weigh risk/benefit with your decision. Be aware with critical illness, sometimes people change their minds when it is too late. Many factors with this: family pressures, pain/suffering, fear of dying, etc.