4 ms·

That is an astounding thing to say. I can not think of anyone that I know personally who thinks that death is a good thing. Can I ask what country you are in, a

• randallsquared 16y ago
  I'm in the US, was raised as a Christian, and I'm talking about the mainstream view as reflected in the reaction of people whenever the possibility of preventing aging comes up. If you ask, "Do you think death is a good thing?", most people will say, "Of course not!", but when you ask about the possibility of extending life well into the second century, or living for millennia, suddenly objections are all you hear. In fiction, people who live for a very long time are mostly portrayed as being depressed about it -- "I wish I could die" is a common theme in vampire fiction, for example. People seem to want to live another year, but to think that living for another hundred years would be an awful fate. There's a whole industry of people who try to convince people not to attempt to extend their life another year or another six months, but instead just die "with dignity", as though it's not dignified to live longer. It's startling to me that you haven't seen at least the edges of this if you've been paying attention to "bioethics" (a too-self-congratulatory name, in my opinion) and similar debates.