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live or die
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Except that the question is not whether you would die tomorrow or be old, but whether you would die tomorrow or be in a nursing home. If you are in a nursing home, presumably you are not in very good health. Personally, I would rather die.
still depends
I mean if we're just comparing it to all the second-hand internet stories about some generic random old people then that's great I guess-- "when you're 80 there's a very good chance you'll be on a respirator pissing through a tube relying on a care assistant who's paid $7 an hour and doesn't give a shit if you choke on your soggy weetabix to feed you. have fun" is pretty "conclusive" after all
well actually first of all it isn't
secondly I doubt it's particularly true depending on what "very good chance" is even supposed to mean
so I'm going to go with the safe option and choose life which is pretty much default when all I have is basic research and the opinions of a couple internet people
I mean if we're just comparing it to all the second-hand internet stories about some generic random old people then that's great I guess-- "when you're 80 there's a very good chance you'll be on a respirator pissing through a tube relying on a care assistant who's paid $7 an hour and doesn't give a shit if you choke on your soggy weetabix to feed you. have fun" is pretty "conclusive" after all
well actually first of all it isn't
secondly I doubt it's particularly true depending on what "very good chance" is even supposed to mean
so I'm going to go with the safe option and choose life which is pretty much default when all I have is basic research and the opinions of a couple internet people
they're not 'generic random old people', they are people I met and work with. they exist.
I am 100 fucken percent with akuchi on this one. Experience with my grandparents tells me the same, exactly the same; I do not want to wither and die and slowly start cracking apart like crumbling concrete. They are allowed to finish me off before that. I do not see the point in living if you cannot even live properly.
I'd rather die tomorrow.
I hates florida. Stupid hurricanes and 109 degree weather...
I hates florida. Stupid hurricanes and 109 degree weather...
To me, the important thing about life is how you live it, not how long you live it for. I'd rather die tomorrow than die in a state of physical and emotional disrepair at eighty-five. Likewise, I'd take dying at forty over dying tomorrow, because I believe I will probably be in a better mental state when I'm forty and presumably still in possession of my facilities. What akuchi and Altmer said is true. Personally I'm afraid of being old; as immature as that sounds, it's a pretty common fear. No one wants to lose their independence and that's what youth is intrinsically linked to. Have you ever seen the way people die in nursing homes? People act like it's exaggerated but it honestly isn't. They are frightening places. I'd rather die in my own home with some relatives around me, instead of surrounded by other dying people, losing all my friends and even losing my mind. My great-grandmothers on my paternal side are both in their mid-nineties, and one is very frail and ill, and in hospital a lot =[, and the other is still sprightly and very sharp. She lives in her own home. I doubt she would live in a nursing home unless she wasn't.
I strongly believe in euthanasia in cases like akuchi said. It's a terrible thing when all you want is to finally die after a long life but being forced to live in total pain. I think at that point no one can argue living is the 'better thing', except legally they are required to, blah blah tangled euthanasia debate.
I think you guys underestimate how awful this would be. If the question was 'Would you rather die tomorrow or live to 85 in your own home?', I'd take my own home, no questions, but once I'm in a nursing home, I'm probably not going to be visited much, am probably going to be in a depressing place slowly becoming senile and watching everyone gradually disintegrate about me... I'm terribly afraid of being trapped, and to be trapped within my own body and own elderliness is an intolerable thought to me.
P.S. I am in bad health at fifteen due to various disorders, so odds are I will be pretty sick by the time I'm old, barring amazing technological advancements, so that of course adds bias to my decision. I admire you who still believe it is better to live; I do not admire you who complacently made the decision to live and dismissed concerns such as 'maybe my life won't be 'slightly' rubbish; it will be 'extremely' rubbish'. Odds are I'll be blind and deaf as well by then so yeah. I would like to have at least one of those sensory perceptions please. To me that would be the final straw. At eighty-five you can't really adapt to blindness the way you can when you're younger...
I strongly believe in euthanasia in cases like akuchi said. It's a terrible thing when all you want is to finally die after a long life but being forced to live in total pain. I think at that point no one can argue living is the 'better thing', except legally they are required to, blah blah tangled euthanasia debate.
I think you guys underestimate how awful this would be. If the question was 'Would you rather die tomorrow or live to 85 in your own home?', I'd take my own home, no questions, but once I'm in a nursing home, I'm probably not going to be visited much, am probably going to be in a depressing place slowly becoming senile and watching everyone gradually disintegrate about me... I'm terribly afraid of being trapped, and to be trapped within my own body and own elderliness is an intolerable thought to me.
P.S. I am in bad health at fifteen due to various disorders, so odds are I will be pretty sick by the time I'm old, barring amazing technological advancements, so that of course adds bias to my decision. I admire you who still believe it is better to live; I do not admire you who complacently made the decision to live and dismissed concerns such as 'maybe my life won't be 'slightly' rubbish; it will be 'extremely' rubbish'. Odds are I'll be blind and deaf as well by then so yeah. I would like to have at least one of those sensory perceptions please. To me that would be the final straw. At eighty-five you can't really adapt to blindness the way you can when you're younger...
i'd stick with could...
akuchi's stories touched a nerve clearly, it really sucks that that's the state of some of the old folks homes right now. personally I'd check out the scene for a couple of days, and if i could get cool stuff done (internet access, my ds, writing, books), why the hell not? I see my 80+ year old grandmother, who lives in her own house even now and cooks for herself every day and has bad feet almost every week. i don't see why anyone would automatically die instead of checing out the scene for a bit. if suicide isn't an option I guess I would need to see how infirm i was and what activities i'd have access to in a more well defined way.
naturally i support euthenasia provided the person is informed and willing. in comatose cases it becomes murky and the potential for their rest of their life to be meaningful and enjoyable comes into play, which is a difficult thing to determine!
I actually thought about this for a bit, and decided that I would rather die a painless death tomorrow than be subject to living in a home for the elderly.
I, for one, hope to die before I get into the 60s/70s; reasoning for this being that I have seen many of my older relatives fall prey to diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, and the like. The idea of having lived that long and succumbing to something like Alzheimer's is unbearable to me, my mind growing totally out of my control and I don't even know it. Forgetting or misinterpreting those who were close to me without even realizing the mistakes I have made is a fate worse than death, to me. Even if I am free of these diseases, my body and mind would both be deteriorating at an accelerating rate while I am forced to endure it only because of sobbing relatives whose ideology is simply "If he is alive, he is better off than being dead." when they are simply thinking of themselves, not being able to bear the loss of a family member.
I, for one, hope to die before I get into the 60s/70s; reasoning for this being that I have seen many of my older relatives fall prey to diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, and the like. The idea of having lived that long and succumbing to something like Alzheimer's is unbearable to me, my mind growing totally out of my control and I don't even know it. Forgetting or misinterpreting those who were close to me without even realizing the mistakes I have made is a fate worse than death, to me. Even if I am free of these diseases, my body and mind would both be deteriorating at an accelerating rate while I am forced to endure it only because of sobbing relatives whose ideology is simply "If he is alive, he is better off than being dead." when they are simply thinking of themselves, not being able to bear the loss of a family member.
I agree with everything you said
This thread is fucking depressing
Ugh maybe if it were die after ten years, but if I were to die now I'd be pretty pathetic. I guess I'd probably have to pick die, because I've yet to meet any one who's happy with their old age, but I'd feel bad about missing out on the prime of your life. And having worked in a hospital, I'm all with akuchi on this one. I delivered trays to rooms, and seeing the way that people lived was just depressing as hell, and if there's anything about old age that's worth living for, I've yet to see it.
Grandchildren, seeing you kids be succesful, people feeding you (only if your a lazy ass phuck)xD, hot nurses bathing you. etc.. But I prefer life over death yes im interested in afterlife but I still wanna live. Plus Ive seen alot of happy people in nursing homes.
This is a stupid question. Im 20, why would I want to die tomorrow if i wont be in an elderly home untill im like, oh I dont know.....70. This is way too brod of a question. Id still be 20 tomorrow, why would I die at 20 just so I wouldnt have to be in a elderly home if I still have another 40-50 years before I would be in an elderly home. Now if the question was that you are now 70 and will be living in a home starting tomorrow and then decide, that would be a better question. Unless you are saying that a 20 year old would have to start living in a home tomorrow, but why is a 20 year old in a retirement home. Why would I die tomorrow for somehting tha wont happen for close to 50 years?
This... my body will kill itself before I hit 85.
It's a rather broad question, because there are different factors to consider. I'm not buying for a second that all old people are miserable and withering away and that all nursing homes are prisons that keep them in a living hell. Of course, many are, but that's a rather broad generalization. Hopefully, I'll have had kids that successful but unloving and put me in a nice retirement home in Florida where I could do things I enjoy in reasonably healthy physical condition. However, if it was as bad as what akuchi described, then yeah, I'd die.
I never said that they didn't exist.