tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580247703206240142.post2621614050645600426..comments2023-05-16T02:08:42.858-07:00Comments on Degringolade: End of LifeDegringoladehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11893964959960977677noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580247703206240142.post-82612457872659524622010-01-24T10:44:46.323-08:002010-01-24T10:44:46.323-08:00Gather:
This actually raises one of the two fund...Gather:<br /><br />This actually raises one of the two fundamental questions. <br /><br />Does the soul exist?<br /><br />How one answers that will probably end up having a big influence on how one approaches one's mortality. But, even if you do not presuppose the existence of a soul, the desire of an individual to take a unfair amount of a limited resource (yes, I believe that health care in the current model is a limited resource), this constitutes an injustice.Degringoladehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11893964959960977677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3580247703206240142.post-47921091256694619912010-01-24T09:01:20.191-08:002010-01-24T09:01:20.191-08:00Interesting questions there. Personally, should I ...Interesting questions there. Personally, should I be looking someday at the Terminal Phase (as opposed to getting hit by a truck), I'd like to have the option of offing myself in some fairly pleasant way. A morphine overdose would be nice. There was an article in the New York Times in March '09 called "Religious Belief Linked to Desire for Aggressive Treatment in Terminal Patients", reporting on a JAMA study. Summary of findings: "Terminally ill cancer patients who drew comfort from religion were far more likely to seek aggressive, life-prolonging care in the week before they died than were less religious patients and far more likely to want doctors to do everything possible to keep them alive, a study has found." Counter-intuitive? Or is it? My sense of it (as a non-believer) is that belief in an afterlife may for some be a way of whistling past the graveyard and not dealing with the fear of death, an avoidance which may leave one less prepared for it when it does come. To quote William Shatner (from his song "You'll Have Time"): "Live life like you're gonna die, because you're gonna."Gather ye marbleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06054541606669852298noreply@blogger.com