9 ms·

On Mother's Day, My Mom Asked Me to Help End Her Life

100 points by pmcpinto 10y ago

loonattic 10y ago
Though I can't think of anything strongly against Switzerland at the moment, this is another reason for me to despise governments and law... where one can't even aid someone in ending their unnecessary, completely pointless suffering without getting their life ruined? Yet states often reserve the hypocritical "right" to execute the death penalty. A sad read, worth it.
- rtkwe 10y ago
  That contradiction doesn't exist in Europe, only Belarus has the death penalty.
akanet 10y ago
Some days, I wonder if I'll get lucky and manage to go the next day without thinking about the enormity of death. Yesterday, I was wrong.
- amelius 10y ago
  Here's a way of thinking about it that might make it a little lighter. First, you have to understand that the version of you at this moment is different from the version of you yesterday. You don't feel what you felt yesterday. All that is left are memories, which are somehow engraved in your brain. The part of you that survives is purely physical. So in a sense, dying and living are the same thing: you die at every femtosecond of living. Dying is not special. You (as anyone else) have been doing it for many years now. If this doesn't work for you, then consider the following. We are all living beings, and sometimes some of us die, and sometimes new beings are born. But who says that those living beings aren't just one big living being? Our brains tell us so. But this view is only an artifact of the brain. If our brains were all interconnected more strongly, then I bet our brains would view us as one living being. So what you can take from this is that dying is just like losing a few brain cells. This is also something that you have been doing for years (in fact billions of years). So in this view, you never die until, of course, the universe ends.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - akanet 10y ago
    > you die at every femtosecond of living This is an interesting theory that has its roots in solipsism: the belief the world vanishes the moment you close your eyes. The fact of the matter is that it (and solipsism) just don't seem to be true, not even to solipsists. If you truly believed you were dying at every second, you'd act in all sorts of ways against your long term survival, but here you are posting on the internet. Even if we take the position as true, it seems entirely reasonable to perceive the end of the "chain" of "yous" to be a tragic event. > But who says that those living beings aren't just one big living being? Our brains tell us so. Well, our brains, as well as the general evidence we see in the world around us. If we were one giant interconnected entity, dying would probably be very different. However, there's very little reason to assume that as a given - I can't talk to my dead relatives through any of my living ones. I think this argument is perhaps more simply stated as "you were never a large part of the human race, so your death will not matter in a large way either" which is quite true, in fact. My counterpoint would be that the death of the individual rightly remains terrifying to that individual. If I were the human race, I would correctly not concern myself with the death of a few of my brain cells (and I do not, regarding my own real brain cells), but I would regard the death of the human race (myself) as truly important. If anyone's interested, I've written about some of these kinds of arguments I've heard before: http://vincentwoo.com/2011/04/30/arguing-for-immortality/ http://vincentwoo.com/2011/04/30/arguing-for-immortality/
  - junko 10y ago
    I personally don't like thinking that I'm just one part of something much bigger. Yes it IS true, but I consider myself too uniquely different from every other person in this world. It's not vanity, because it's the same for everyone else. No matter who or where you are, you are a universe of its own. You have a mind and a character that will always be different and will never be fully comprehended by others - a snowflake, yeah I get that's cliché but it's true. And imagine that no matter how many billions of snowflakes there are, each one is different from another. Now that's mind-boggling. Whenever I get the "death dread", I think of this, and remember what a privilege it is to be in this world and experience these 'universes' - no matter how brief life may be.
- crusso 10y ago
  Take luck out of the picture. Learn how to meditate. I find that when the suckiness of mortality intrudes upon my thoughts, twenty minutes of meditation clears my mind and prepares it for handling more immediate concerns. Being trapped in negative patterns of thought can be unhealthy. It's best to break those patterns. Exercise is also very helpful.
  - loonattic 10y ago
    Do you recommend looking into any specific more complicated theory or guidance into meditation, or do you think it's sufficient to focus on breathing while letting thoughts flow and be?
    - firepoet 10y ago
      Each person's causes and conditions are different, so each bit of guidance has to be tailored to them. That said, I have found great support in Shambhala International. It's a Western Buddhist tradition grounded in the Vajrayana from Tibet. You can find a Center here: http://shambhala.org/centres/find-shambhala-centre/ http://shambhala.org/centres/find-shambhala-centre/ One excellent text that comes from one of the parent lineages of Shambhala is the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is basically a preparation for the Bardo, or the "in-between" stages after life. You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo_Thodol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo_Thodol There is a vast library of teachings from our senior teachers here: http://shambhala.org/teachings-library/ http://shambhala.org/teachings-library/ Plus a bunch of recorded talks by our very controversial founder: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chogyam+trungpa https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chogyam+trungpa For Tibetans, the practice of meditation is simply the practice of preparing for death. You are becoming familiar with your mind so you will be able to see through the delusions that arise when your mindstream is no longer attached to a physical body. Of course, you don't necessarily have to believe in rebirth to find value in these traditions. I have found the community aspects of Shambhala to be quite supportive, even when I had doubts, which in this tradition are expected to be plentiful, and are celebrated. Happy to answer any questions!
      - 10y ago
- Delmania 10y ago
  > Some days, I wonder if I'll get lucky and manage to go the next day without thinking about the enormity of death. Why? The fact we are aware of our death is important.
- alanwatts 10y ago
  Memento mori. Be mindful of death. Let's look at it another way, the enormity of death shows us the precious value of being alive. GO out and live your life! Go do what makes you happy and feel alive. If you couldn't die, you wouldn't know you were alive, like a rock. Many of those who have come close to death claim to feel more alive than they ever have, unless they are drugged out by pain killers and such.
staticelf 10y ago
I don't understand why helping people who want to die is illegal in most countries. It's unfathomable why some people are against that. If I become deeply sick when I am of age I will probably also want to decide when I want to die and not die slowly and painfully. People who are against letting people choose their own death is having a selfish and evil stance, there is no way to excuse that.
- sokoloff 10y ago
  One concern is, what if the person doesn't really want to die but the "care"givers want their ordeal to be over, or want to collect an inheritance, or collect an inheritance before it's all gobbled up by end-of-life care? In genuine cases of wanting out, I support it, but I'm not sure how to design the right controls around it to be fully comfortable with it.
  - rev_bird 10y ago
    I'm from the U.S., and I'm guessing you are too -- I wonder, in Europe, if "end-of-life" care bankrupts old people like it does here.
    - notlisted 10y ago
      It won't. Socialized medicine works. Note: It probably doesn't just bankrupt old people here… I've seen whole families affected by last-ditch efforts to squeeze out a few more months. Second mortgages. College funds. It's horrifying. (live in US, from Europe)
- naringas 10y ago
  I think it's related to christian morality. They belive something along the lines of "God gave you your life and only Him can decide when it should end"
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    Pro-life.
nxzero 10y ago
While I personally, regardless my health would never end my life... ...anyone that believes they would be able to deal level of suffering, mindlessness, toll on friends & family, etc. - should try experiencing it for themselves to see if they would be able to deal with it and provide aid to those they've forced to live on. Everyone should have the right to die, to believe otherwise is inhuman.
krijt 10y ago
beautifully written.. I cried a little bit.
tremon 10y ago
The Netherlands has the most liberal requirements—depression alone is considered a sufficient justification To offer additional explanation here: the Dutch euthanasia legislation doesn't explicitly enumerate allowed conditions for termination, it merely requires the patient to be experiencing irremediable suffering. While that may qualify as "most liberal" for the patient, I'm not convinced our legislation is really that progressive: the legislation merely shields a practitioner from homicide charges iff proper procedure is observed. But "proper procedure" cannot be vetted or signed-off before the act; a criminal investigation will always be opened (as it is required for all non-natural deaths), but will be dropped if a medical ethics board agrees (post facto!) with the practitioner's decision. From the NVVE site (Dutch Society for Voluntary Termination) [1], a practitioner must: - be convinced the patient's decision is voluntary and well-informed - be convinced the patient is experiencing irremediable suffering (literally "indefinite and unbearable suffering") - inform the patient about their situation and prognosis - agree with the patient that no acceptable alternatives exist - collect at least one second opinion (from a non-treating phycisian) that agrees with all the above - perform the procedure according to medical standards [1] https://www.nvve.nl/wat-euthanasie/zorgvuldige-uitvoering https://www.nvve.nl/wat-euthanasie/zorgvuldige-uitvoering
- rev_bird 10y ago
  This is kind of baffling to me -- the "approval" process is only performed after the patient is dead?
  - wjnc 10y ago
    Approval really is the wrong word. The (legal) action towards the doctor for assisting in an unnatural death are shelved, if and only if the requirements are met. Clearing someone of wrongdoing is not the same as approving ones actions. It is an interesting subject, really close to ones personal belief system. A recent documentary, which showed several cases of euthanasia in NL based on 'indefinite and unbearable suffering' of the mind (f.e. one lady was tired of her life at 90+ years), probably confirms opinions on both sides of the debate the same way. For me, having witnessed two deaths by euthanasia (AIDS) and one without (cancer), I would grant any human the chance to plan their moment of death, even if the suffering is mental.
tubelite 10y ago
If you don't have the right to opt-out, then you are not a customer, or citizen, or devotee. You are the product being sold.
endymi0n 10y ago
The doctor's response to the question if he'd recommend her mother to go through cancer treatment reminded me a lot of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3313570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3313570 [How Doctors Die]... why is the standard answer still to make people suffer for extending their life just a few months or years?
- masklinn 10y ago
  > The doctor's response to the question if he'd recommend her mother to go through cancer treatment reminded me a lot of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3313570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3313570 [How Doctors Die]... Of Atul Gawande's "Being Mortal" as well.
sickbeard 10y ago
Lets flip the coin for a moment. Supposing you had a 30 year old family member who wanted to die. The choice she gives you is, i'll hang myself or jump in front of a moving car.. or you can let me die with my family surrounding me peacefully. Would you do it? Note there is no mention of why she wants to die. If there is a cure or it can be fixed will you go along with it?
- Thiez 10y ago
  That seems like a rather unlikely scenario. People don't just decide they want to die on a whim. And it's not like in countries with legalized euthanasia you can just go to a doctor tomorrow morning, declare you're not feeling so well, and you'll be scheduled for termination later that afternoon. I for one would not assist in any suicide without knowing why someone wants to die, and given that my country has a process that allows for legal euthanasia, I'm not sure why your hypothetical family member would ask me to commit this crime rather than going through official channels, especially since we are apparently so estranged that I was completely unaware of her struggles and death wish until this request. The best I can do in your scenario is warn the authorities of the suicide risk, and recommend that she does not throw herself in front of a car or train, because it's so extremely inconsiderate towards the driver and/or passengers, and is that really the way you wish to go / be remembered? Oh, and perhaps recommend that if for whatever reason she does find the opportunity to kill herself, don't try to poison yourself unless you really know what you're doing. Killing yourself with an overdose of painkillers sounds like a really good idea at first, but it's likely that hanging yourself or cutting your wrists doesn't seem like such a bad way to go in hindsight, when you're dying of liver failure over the next few days.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
kregasaurusrex 10y ago
This was a really well written piece. Always enjoy reading these on HN.
notlisted 10y ago
Beautiful story. I have several friends in the Netherlands whose parents (terminally ill, i.e. MLS, cancer) opted for euthanasia. They were all happy with the process and the outcome. Unless advances in immunotherapy significantly change the outlook, I'd rather move back to my home country for a dignified death on my own terms. I've seen too many cases where several rounds of chemo extended life by just a few months under dismal circumstances for the patient and their family. Lives revolved around hospital visits while -- depending on the type/stage/location of cancer -- chances of recovery are slim to none. False hope and misery. Bankruptcy. Why bother?
maaku 10y ago
Somebody should talk to the OP's mother about cryonics.
- duskwuff 10y ago
  It's a little late for that, unless you plan on performing a séance.
  - maaku 10y ago
    I did read part of the article but didn't finish because it is too depressing to read about someone murdering family out of ignorance. Thanks for letting me know how it ended.
- bkmartin 10y ago
  Why? They haven't even proven human revival is possible. Until they do it is nothing more than vaporware. More of a scam. And this statement... "We believe that the damage caused by current cryopreservation is limited and can someday be repaired in the future." I don't really care what you believe when selling a scientific solution. What is proven? Why do you believe that? Good marketing? Actual data that shows it is limited? But hey, by the time they fail to prove it correct you'll be dead and have no recourse or care. Thanks for the money.
  - maaku 10y ago
    If you're waiting for revival to be shown then your missing the point. The whole idea is to halt decay while there are problems that can't be solved yet. It's an ambulance ride to the future.
- tveita 10y ago
  There are other religions that will make the same promises for less money.
  - maaku 10y ago
    Fuck off.
agumonkey 10y ago
Saddens me that we still cannot find solutions to bring them back to healthy. Instead of spending too much time on how law can understand it, we should find way to remove hurdles for medicine to progress.

100 points by pmcpinto 10y ago

Though I can't think of anything strongly against Switzerland at the moment, this is another reason for me to despise governments and law... where one can't even aid someone in ending their unnecessary, completely pointless suffering without getting their life ruined? Yet states often reserve the hypocritical "right" to execute the death penalty. A sad read, worth it.

rtkwe 10y ago
That contradiction doesn't exist in Europe, only Belarus has the death penalty.

akanet 10y ago

Some days, I wonder if I'll get lucky and manage to go the next day without thinking about the enormity of death. Yesterday, I was wrong.

amelius 10y ago
Here's a way of thinking about it that might make it a little lighter. First, you have to understand that the version of you at this moment is different from the version of you yesterday. You don't feel what you felt yesterday. All that is left are memories, which are somehow engraved in your brain. The part of you that survives is purely physical. So in a sense, dying and living are the same thing: you die at every femtosecond of living. Dying is not special. You (as anyone else) have been doing it for many years now. If this doesn't work for you, then consider the following. We are all living beings, and sometimes some of us die, and sometimes new beings are born. But who says that those living beings aren't just one big living being? Our brains tell us so. But this view is only an artifact of the brain. If our brains were all interconnected more strongly, then I bet our brains would view us as one living being. So what you can take from this is that dying is just like losing a few brain cells. This is also something that you have been doing for years (in fact billions of years). So in this view, you never die until, of course, the universe ends.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- akanet 10y ago
  > you die at every femtosecond of living This is an interesting theory that has its roots in solipsism: the belief the world vanishes the moment you close your eyes. The fact of the matter is that it (and solipsism) just don't seem to be true, not even to solipsists. If you truly believed you were dying at every second, you'd act in all sorts of ways against your long term survival, but here you are posting on the internet. Even if we take the position as true, it seems entirely reasonable to perceive the end of the "chain" of "yous" to be a tragic event. > But who says that those living beings aren't just one big living being? Our brains tell us so. Well, our brains, as well as the general evidence we see in the world around us. If we were one giant interconnected entity, dying would probably be very different. However, there's very little reason to assume that as a given - I can't talk to my dead relatives through any of my living ones. I think this argument is perhaps more simply stated as "you were never a large part of the human race, so your death will not matter in a large way either" which is quite true, in fact. My counterpoint would be that the death of the individual rightly remains terrifying to that individual. If I were the human race, I would correctly not concern myself with the death of a few of my brain cells (and I do not, regarding my own real brain cells), but I would regard the death of the human race (myself) as truly important. If anyone's interested, I've written about some of these kinds of arguments I've heard before: http://vincentwoo.com/2011/04/30/arguing-for-immortality/ http://vincentwoo.com/2011/04/30/arguing-for-immortality/
- junko 10y ago
  I personally don't like thinking that I'm just one part of something much bigger. Yes it IS true, but I consider myself too uniquely different from every other person in this world. It's not vanity, because it's the same for everyone else. No matter who or where you are, you are a universe of its own. You have a mind and a character that will always be different and will never be fully comprehended by others - a snowflake, yeah I get that's cliché but it's true. And imagine that no matter how many billions of snowflakes there are, each one is different from another. Now that's mind-boggling. Whenever I get the "death dread", I think of this, and remember what a privilege it is to be in this world and experience these 'universes' - no matter how brief life may be.
crusso 10y ago
Take luck out of the picture. Learn how to meditate. I find that when the suckiness of mortality intrudes upon my thoughts, twenty minutes of meditation clears my mind and prepares it for handling more immediate concerns. Being trapped in negative patterns of thought can be unhealthy. It's best to break those patterns. Exercise is also very helpful.
- loonattic 10y ago
  Do you recommend looking into any specific more complicated theory or guidance into meditation, or do you think it's sufficient to focus on breathing while letting thoughts flow and be?
  - firepoet 10y ago
    Each person's causes and conditions are different, so each bit of guidance has to be tailored to them. That said, I have found great support in Shambhala International. It's a Western Buddhist tradition grounded in the Vajrayana from Tibet. You can find a Center here: http://shambhala.org/centres/find-shambhala-centre/ http://shambhala.org/centres/find-shambhala-centre/ One excellent text that comes from one of the parent lineages of Shambhala is the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is basically a preparation for the Bardo, or the "in-between" stages after life. You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo_Thodol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo_Thodol There is a vast library of teachings from our senior teachers here: http://shambhala.org/teachings-library/ http://shambhala.org/teachings-library/ Plus a bunch of recorded talks by our very controversial founder: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chogyam+trungpa https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=chogyam+trungpa For Tibetans, the practice of meditation is simply the practice of preparing for death. You are becoming familiar with your mind so you will be able to see through the delusions that arise when your mindstream is no longer attached to a physical body. Of course, you don't necessarily have to believe in rebirth to find value in these traditions. I have found the community aspects of Shambhala to be quite supportive, even when I had doubts, which in this tradition are expected to be plentiful, and are celebrated. Happy to answer any questions!
    - 10y ago
Delmania 10y ago
> Some days, I wonder if I'll get lucky and manage to go the next day without thinking about the enormity of death. Why? The fact we are aware of our death is important.
alanwatts 10y ago
Memento mori. Be mindful of death. Let's look at it another way, the enormity of death shows us the precious value of being alive. GO out and live your life! Go do what makes you happy and feel alive. If you couldn't die, you wouldn't know you were alive, like a rock. Many of those who have come close to death claim to feel more alive than they ever have, unless they are drugged out by pain killers and such.

staticelf 10y ago

I don't understand why helping people who want to die is illegal in most countries. It's unfathomable why some people are against that. If I become deeply sick when I am of age I will probably also want to decide when I want to die and not die slowly and painfully. People who are against letting people choose their own death is having a selfish and evil stance, there is no way to excuse that.

sokoloff 10y ago
One concern is, what if the person doesn't really want to die but the "care"givers want their ordeal to be over, or want to collect an inheritance, or collect an inheritance before it's all gobbled up by end-of-life care? In genuine cases of wanting out, I support it, but I'm not sure how to design the right controls around it to be fully comfortable with it.
- rev_bird 10y ago
  I'm from the U.S., and I'm guessing you are too -- I wonder, in Europe, if "end-of-life" care bankrupts old people like it does here.
  - notlisted 10y ago
    It won't. Socialized medicine works. Note: It probably doesn't just bankrupt old people here… I've seen whole families affected by last-ditch efforts to squeeze out a few more months. Second mortgages. College funds. It's horrifying. (live in US, from Europe)
naringas 10y ago
I think it's related to christian morality. They belive something along the lines of "God gave you your life and only Him can decide when it should end"
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  Pro-life.

nxzero 10y ago

While I personally, regardless my health would never end my life... ...anyone that believes they would be able to deal level of suffering, mindlessness, toll on friends & family, etc. - should try experiencing it for themselves to see if they would be able to deal with it and provide aid to those they've forced to live on. Everyone should have the right to die, to believe otherwise is inhuman.

krijt 10y ago

beautifully written.. I cried a little bit.

tremon 10y ago

The Netherlands has the most liberal requirements—depression alone is considered a sufficient justification To offer additional explanation here: the Dutch euthanasia legislation doesn't explicitly enumerate allowed conditions for termination, it merely requires the patient to be experiencing irremediable suffering. While that may qualify as "most liberal" for the patient, I'm not convinced our legislation is really that progressive: the legislation merely shields a practitioner from homicide charges iff proper procedure is observed. But "proper procedure" cannot be vetted or signed-off before the act; a criminal investigation will always be opened (as it is required for all non-natural deaths), but will be dropped if a medical ethics board agrees (post facto!) with the practitioner's decision. From the NVVE site (Dutch Society for Voluntary Termination) [1], a practitioner must: - be convinced the patient's decision is voluntary and well-informed - be convinced the patient is experiencing irremediable suffering (literally "indefinite and unbearable suffering") - inform the patient about their situation and prognosis - agree with the patient that no acceptable alternatives exist - collect at least one second opinion (from a non-treating phycisian) that agrees with all the above - perform the procedure according to medical standards [1] https://www.nvve.nl/wat-euthanasie/zorgvuldige-uitvoering https://www.nvve.nl/wat-euthanasie/zorgvuldige-uitvoering

rev_bird 10y ago
This is kind of baffling to me -- the "approval" process is only performed after the patient is dead?
- wjnc 10y ago
  Approval really is the wrong word. The (legal) action towards the doctor for assisting in an unnatural death are shelved, if and only if the requirements are met. Clearing someone of wrongdoing is not the same as approving ones actions. It is an interesting subject, really close to ones personal belief system. A recent documentary, which showed several cases of euthanasia in NL based on 'indefinite and unbearable suffering' of the mind (f.e. one lady was tired of her life at 90+ years), probably confirms opinions on both sides of the debate the same way. For me, having witnessed two deaths by euthanasia (AIDS) and one without (cancer), I would grant any human the chance to plan their moment of death, even if the suffering is mental.

tubelite 10y ago

If you don't have the right to opt-out, then you are not a customer, or citizen, or devotee. You are the product being sold.

endymi0n 10y ago

The doctor's response to the question if he'd recommend her mother to go through cancer treatment reminded me a lot of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3313570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3313570 [How Doctors Die]... why is the standard answer still to make people suffer for extending their life just a few months or years?

masklinn 10y ago
> The doctor's response to the question if he'd recommend her mother to go through cancer treatment reminded me a lot of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3313570 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3313570 [How Doctors Die]... Of Atul Gawande's "Being Mortal" as well.

sickbeard 10y ago

Lets flip the coin for a moment. Supposing you had a 30 year old family member who wanted to die. The choice she gives you is, i'll hang myself or jump in front of a moving car.. or you can let me die with my family surrounding me peacefully. Would you do it? Note there is no mention of why she wants to die. If there is a cure or it can be fixed will you go along with it?

Thiez 10y ago
That seems like a rather unlikely scenario. People don't just decide they want to die on a whim. And it's not like in countries with legalized euthanasia you can just go to a doctor tomorrow morning, declare you're not feeling so well, and you'll be scheduled for termination later that afternoon. I for one would not assist in any suicide without knowing why someone wants to die, and given that my country has a process that allows for legal euthanasia, I'm not sure why your hypothetical family member would ask me to commit this crime rather than going through official channels, especially since we are apparently so estranged that I was completely unaware of her struggles and death wish until this request. The best I can do in your scenario is warn the authorities of the suicide risk, and recommend that she does not throw herself in front of a car or train, because it's so extremely inconsiderate towards the driver and/or passengers, and is that really the way you wish to go / be remembered? Oh, and perhaps recommend that if for whatever reason she does find the opportunity to kill herself, don't try to poison yourself unless you really know what you're doing. Killing yourself with an overdose of painkillers sounds like a really good idea at first, but it's likely that hanging yourself or cutting your wrists doesn't seem like such a bad way to go in hindsight, when you're dying of liver failure over the next few days.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

kregasaurusrex 10y ago

This was a really well written piece. Always enjoy reading these on HN.

notlisted 10y ago

Beautiful story. I have several friends in the Netherlands whose parents (terminally ill, i.e. MLS, cancer) opted for euthanasia. They were all happy with the process and the outcome. Unless advances in immunotherapy significantly change the outlook, I'd rather move back to my home country for a dignified death on my own terms. I've seen too many cases where several rounds of chemo extended life by just a few months under dismal circumstances for the patient and their family. Lives revolved around hospital visits while -- depending on the type/stage/location of cancer -- chances of recovery are slim to none. False hope and misery. Bankruptcy. Why bother?

maaku 10y ago

Somebody should talk to the OP's mother about cryonics.

duskwuff 10y ago
It's a little late for that, unless you plan on performing a séance.
- maaku 10y ago
  I did read part of the article but didn't finish because it is too depressing to read about someone murdering family out of ignorance. Thanks for letting me know how it ended.
bkmartin 10y ago
Why? They haven't even proven human revival is possible. Until they do it is nothing more than vaporware. More of a scam. And this statement... "We believe that the damage caused by current cryopreservation is limited and can someday be repaired in the future." I don't really care what you believe when selling a scientific solution. What is proven? Why do you believe that? Good marketing? Actual data that shows it is limited? But hey, by the time they fail to prove it correct you'll be dead and have no recourse or care. Thanks for the money.
- maaku 10y ago
  If you're waiting for revival to be shown then your missing the point. The whole idea is to halt decay while there are problems that can't be solved yet. It's an ambulance ride to the future.
tveita 10y ago
There are other religions that will make the same promises for less money.
- maaku 10y ago
  Fuck off.

agumonkey 10y ago

Saddens me that we still cannot find solutions to bring them back to healthy. Instead of spending too much time on how law can understand it, we should find way to remove hurdles for medicine to progress.