{"id":7390,"date":"2012-06-02T18:21:49","date_gmt":"2012-06-02T18:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=7390"},"modified":"2012-06-02T18:45:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-02T18:45:34","slug":"a-life-worth-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/a-life-worth-ending\/","title":{"rendered":"A Life Worth Ending?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m not going to comment (well, overmuch anyway) on this<\/a> moving, thought-provoking and beautifully-written piece by Michael Wolff, described by New York <\/em>magazine in these terms:<\/p>\n

The era of medical miracles has created a new phase of aging, as far from living as it is from dying. A son\u2019s plea to let his mother go.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is a must-read but it should not be used to give any support to the rather disgusting opinions of the likes of \u201cbio-ethicists\u201d such as Leon Kass<\/a>:<\/p>\n

For Kass, to argue that life is better without death is to argue “that human life would be better being something other than human.”<\/p>\n

In numerous presentations and papers throughout the years, Kass has argued for what he calls the “virtues of mortality.” First among them is the effect mortality has on our interest in and engagement with life. To number our days, Kass contends, “is the condition for making them count and for treasuring and appreciating all that life brings.”<\/p>\n

Kass also believes that the process of aging itself is important because it helps us make sense of our lives.<\/p>\n

A 2003 staff working paper drawn up by the U.S. President\u2019s Council of Bioethics \u2014 then headed by Kass \u2014 states: “The very experience of spending a life, and of becoming spent in doing so, contributes to our sense of accomplishment and commitment, and to our sense of the meaningfulness of the passage of time, and of our passage through it.”<\/p>\n

Technology that retards aging, the report argues, would “sever age from the moorings of nature, time and maturity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do note, incidentally, that this death-cultist was given the job of running a taxpayer-funded boondoggle (the US President\u2019s Council of Bioethics indeed) by George W. Bush, President \u201cCompassionate\u201d himself.<\/p>\n

Obviously (yes, obviously), the further we are able to extend life, the better. The key, however, is extending the quality <\/em>of life, and there technology, tragically, moves at an uneven pace. At the core of Mr. Wollf\u2019s piece is the fact that our ability to stretch out the life of the body appears at the moment to be running ahead of our ability to preserve the life of the mind, a mismatch that can cause terrible suffering. But the crucial words are \u201cat the moment\u201d. Stories like these are no reason to slow the science down. <\/p>\n

Anyway, check out the piece, and see what you think. It\u2019s sometimes painful reading, but it\u2019s worth the time. <\/p>\n

Wolff concludes like this:<\/p>\n

Anyway, after due consideration, I decided on my own that I plainly would never want what LTC insurance buys, and, too, that this would be a bad deal. My bet is that, even in America, even as screwed up as our health care is, we baby-boomers watching our parents\u2019 long and agonizing deaths won\u2019t do this to ourselves. We will surely, we must surely, find a better, cheaper, quicker, kinder way out.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, since, like my mother, I can\u2019t count on someone putting a pillow over my head, I\u2019ll be trying to work out the timing and details of a do-it-yourself exit strategy. As should we all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bradlaugh agrees<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In Brave New World<\/em>, as I recall, everyone lives into their early sixties, then swiftly declines and dies. That seems to me ideal if the necessary genomic tinkering can be done.<\/p>\n

Until it is, sauve qui peut. I have a good selection of guns and have made up my mind that if it comes to diapers, I shall see myself out with a gun. I will not wear diapers\u2014that\u2019s the end point for me, the milestone I am determined not to pass.<\/p>\n

I promise not to make too much of a mess. Heart, not head\u2014like Flory in Burmese Days<\/em>\u2014and outdoors if I can make it: ideally a nice hillside in the Poconos, watching the sun go down, with a good cigar and some decent bourbon for company. But I will not wear diapers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

John, I\u2019ll pass on the (negative) genomic tinkering, thank you very much (but I\u2019ll take any good genomic tinkering, I have always wanted to score a century<\/a>, at least). That said, I agree with you and Wolff that, in the absence of intervening catastrophe, planning one\u2019s own exit is the way to go, and, I might add, as selflessly as possible. If you’re able to do it yourself, don\u2019t drag others into your decision-making. That’ll only hurt them. Do all the paperwork. Leave everything in order. And then, I think, an overdose of something soothing. I\u2019m no Bradlaugh or Gunther Sachs<\/a>. I\u2019m not tough enough to pull that trigger. The Poconos? No. Too much of a shock for an unwary hitchiker,and too much of a treat for passing wildlife.Sky-burial<\/a> is not for me. A hotel room in a favorite place (somewhere in the southwest, perhaps), would do nicely. There would be a large donation on the side-table for the unfortunate who discovered my corpse. <\/p>\n

But would I ever be able to decide that now was the time \u201cnot to be\u201d? Now that<\/em> is the question. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not going to comment (well, overmuch anyway) on this moving, thought-provoking and beautifully-written piece by Michael Wolff, described by New York magazine in these terms: The era of medical miracles has created a new phase of aging, as far … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[917,550,860,918,323],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7390"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7398,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7390\/revisions\/7398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}