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Idk, I think we should make assisted suicide options more prevalent for older people. The reality is that life sucks for many of them. The article says that man
by b_tterc_p 7y ago
Idk, I think we should make assisted suicide options more prevalent for older people. The reality is that life sucks for many of them. The article says that many of them feel like they’re a burden. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong. You’re going to be aware that you provide little value to people’s lives if you’re unable to do anything and are personally in general discomfort from your decaying body. Suicide does not need to be seen as a terrible thing. It’s totally reasonable to celebrate the end of life. To leave on your own terms sounds much less scary. The normal ideal way to die seems to be surrounded by loved ones but most people don’t get that. They get a scary bodily failure alone and in pain.
Not to mention the psychological benefits that might come from a healthier image of dying for young people.
- defined 7y agoThis is spot on. I say this as an aging person living in irreversible and progressively increasing discomfort. To quote an old film title, whose life is it, anyway?
- whatshisface 7y agoInstead of changing society so that unhappy people die, why not change society so that they're happy?
- michaelbuckbee 7y agoMy family has a history of dementia and it's terrifying. Currently my grandmother is 95 and more or less can't remember anything from the past 30 years. She doesn't know who I am when I visit because I don't look like I did 30 years ago. She requires 24/7 caretaking and most conversations with her end with "I don't know why the lord hasn't taken me yet". She's very physically weak and struggles to just walk around the house, etc. This has been more or less her state for the past 15 years. Despite the best efforts of the family she is 95 and ready to go and not sure what else we can do.
- snegu 7y agoBecause it's not about society; it's about the body (and mind) failing.
- cptskippy 7y agoWhy not both? You're assuming there is happiness for everyone, and they're assuming that everyone gets to a point where happiness is unattainable.
- b_tterc_p 7y agoI suppose what I’m really saying is that dying of natural causes and living in the frailty of old age really sucks. I’m not advocating for unhappy to kill themselves. I’m saying making an informed decision about when you’d like to die is ideal regardless of your emotional state. It makes sense for happy people to do this too. And maybe the answer is as long as possible, but I doubt it for most cases.
- flattone 7y agosimilar line of thinking: if you know youre a sick psychopath why share your bs on hackernews. go get help.
- jbob2000 7y agoMoney will get in the way of solving this problem. The sick thing is that old people actually do provide value, just not in the way you think. In 2016, people over 55 years old accounted for 56% of healthcare spending even though they make up 29% of the population [1]. If you allow for an assisted suicide option, you will give this population another option instead of healthcare. Right now, when they get sick, their only option is to engage with the healthcare industry. Instead of grandpa going for his third triple bypass, he will opt for suicide. The doctors and nurses will not get to perform that operation. The hospital will not get to loot grandpa's savings. The insurance companies will not get to bill the hospital. Old people are the lifeblood of the health care industry. Not only that, but terminally ill patients as well! If you let them kill themselves, that entire industry dies too. They will not let this happen. They will argue for morality but behind the scenes what they're arguing for is their bottom line. [1] - https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-expenditures-vary-across-population/#item-people-age-55-and-over-account-for-over-half-of-total-health-spending_2016 https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-...
- svieira 7y agoWhy stop with older people? Why not simply allow anyone who wants to off themselves to get on with it safely? After all, we wouldn't want young people to think that being useless is something you have to suffer with for years. To take it a bit farther, why wait for them to decide to go themselves - some of these people don't have a lot of get-up-and-go in the first place, maybe they just need a little helping hand. Why not off those who are _demonstrably_ providing little value to {others, the state, the corporation}? ---- In case you don't do sarcasm, this is how we wound up with Nazi Germany's death camps. They were (from the Nazi's perspective) humane solutions to the problems of untermensch polluting the gene pool. s/gene pool/society's emotive context/g. ---- Life is worth living. No matter how worthless you feel, no matter how how alone you seem. You are not alone. You are not worthless. You Are Loved. [1] [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Left-Tell-Discovering-Rwandan-Holocaust/dp/1401908977 https://www.amazon.com/Left-Tell-Discovering-Rwandan-Holocau...
- b_tterc_p 7y agoStrawman, and not an especially relevant one tbh. Life is generally worth living. You can have loving family. But you can also be doing nothing but waiting to die in a retirement home away from friends and family, in pain and hopped up on drugs. It’s really not an empathetic thing to assert that people who are comfortable with the end of their life must believe they are not loved. Ending your life does not have to come from grief. It is BETTER to have acceptance and die than to die alone in fear. It is BETTER if people talk about this difficult subject rather than stave it off as long as possible. People will be happier if they can do this. If your doctor tells you that you’re going to have an uncomfortable 3 years, it may make sense to you to just say no thanks and have an honest good bye with your family, saving you and them from the uncomfort to come. It is ok to die. Even without (but for 99% of people only with) medical circumstances.
- svieira 7y ago> It is okay to die. Dying is the one part of life we are guaranteed - I absolutely agree with you that it is okay to die. I also agree that you don't need to take extraordinary means to preserve your life - you don't have to take the chemotherapy, for example, or have your heart kept active after all other vital signs have ceased. I also know that our lives our not our own. We do not choose to pick them up and we may not choose to lay them down ourselves. People are happier when they accept this (I assert, as an _ad contra_ to your assertion). Why do you say that "for 99% of people only with medical circumstances is it okay to die"? Is it just that you think most people _will not_ choose death? Or that they _should not_ choose death?