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What's always missing from these discussions is culture. Nobody wants to point out that a century ago, the zeitgeist regarded death as a natural thing, and took
by daxorid 10y ago
What's always missing from these discussions is culture. Nobody wants to point out that a century ago, the zeitgeist regarded death as a natural thing, and took only nominally prudent steps to avoid it.
Now, we will expend enormous efforts, all available options, just to trivially extend the life of anyone and everyone with health problems.
- hippich 10y agoWhile your argument makes sense from practical short-term standpoint, I think it also should be viewed more long-term. Each effort to extend life / save from immediate death brings experience, technology advancement. And what today might be just a short extension of life, in few years might bring several years of quality life, and in 100 years - even more.
- hx87 10y agoMost of these short-term life extending efforts basically amounts to putting people on chemical and mechanical life support, which isn't going to be a source of significant improvements in life quality.
- coredog64 10y agoThat's patently false. If you've got a drooling Alzheimer patient that has given up on their will to live, it's pointless to leave them hooked up to machines, prolonging their last painful days. There's no frontier advancement happening, just rent extraction.
- hammock 10y agoBut which is the chicken and which is the egg?
- dionidium 10y agoDid health care change because our attitudes about death changed or did our attitudes change as health care improved? You seem to think it's the former, but I am almost certain it's the latter.
- AnimalMuppet 10y agoIt can be both. They can feed back on each other.