Given the nature of most "natural" deaths, sudden death like this has to be kindest for the individual - but it's cruellest on those around them. On occasion, when I've taken part in a successful resuscitation, I have had the fleeting thought that just maybe we're not doing the best thing for the person by saving them from a quick end; perhaps one day they may be painfully dying by inches, from cancer or emphysema or liver failure. But you can't play god, so we charge in and do what we can.