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How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

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Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#201

Post by KineticLensman »

slim wrote: post #156
raptorraver wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due religious reasons I'm contemplating my death quite often. Not daily but I try to do it at least weekly. I don't say it has made me comfortable about being mortal but compared to people around me I seem to have more casual relationship to it. Like the other day my boss asked me if I'll come to the office next week and with smile on my face I answered, that yes I'll come if I won't die during weekend. He got quite…

What you said to your boss is actually a common expression in my country. To say "I hope so" about some event in the future, we say "If we live".

In parts of the UK the equivalent is 'if we're spared'. Some people may decide this means that the person saying it is probably a miserable old codger, the sort of person who says "mustn't grumble" when asked "How's things?"

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#202

Post by fleischhauf »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #157
raptorraver wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Due religious reasons I'm contemplating my death quite often. Not daily but I try to do it at least weekly. I don't say it has made me comfortable about being mortal but compared to people around me I seem to have more casual relationship to it. Like the other day my boss asked me if I'll come to the office next week and with smile on my face I answered, that yes I'll come if I won't die during weekend. He got quite…

I have the same thing. I often contemplate my death, and how I am going to die. And yes, I derive some comfort from it - knowing I have lived my best life and done the best I could at it. There are things I haven't achieved yet that I want to experience, so I don't want to go just yet. But if it happens, then I'm good with that. But I'm an atheist, and firmly believe that this is all we get, and death really is the e…

I like the fact that we are made of atoms. Even if we die they will remain, even if it is only energy. So, for me its very comforting to think that sure i will stop exisiting as this configuration of tiny particles, however its not the end, its just a reconfiguration and i will become one with the universe, a tiny part of everything.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#203

Post by EMM_386 »

adventured wrote: post #65
Johnny555 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I don't usually comment on downvotes, my guess is that the downvotes are because your question can come off as being insensitive. After someone tells you about the tragic death of both of his parents, maybe don't start a guessing game of what his mother died of even if your loved one died of that same disease.

The barrage of downvotes were typical HN assuming the worst (mindless insensitivity) rather than giving a benefit of the doubt about my intent. This, from HN's guidelines: Assume good faith. You won't see much of that on HN in my very long experience here. People so often jump right to assuming the worst, which is why that guideline exists. The assumption was that I was being insensitive, when the actuality was that…

This will likely get downvoted also. The issue is it becoming too meta and veering off topic.

I didn't assume anything, and I'm sorry for your loss. But the topic is about how doctors choose to die and it's too off-topic to go into how votes on a particular website are counted.

It really doesn't matter.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#204

Post by hoseja »

wombatmobile wrote: post #127

The important difference between physicians and non-physicians in relation to death is not that doctors understand disease mechanisms. It is that doctor's are familiar with death. Ordinary people aren't as familiar with death, and don't have a wide range of responses to it because society hides it and pretends it doesn't exist. The main place regular people encounter death is on the news as a statistic of war and cri…

We forgot to memento mori.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#205

Post by eerikkivistik »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #151
spoonjim wrote: post #129

The problem with euthanasia is that the certainty of it defies all human survival instincts so it’s psychologically very difficult to press a button that ends our existence. What would be better if you could legally hire a service, while healthy, that would sneak up on you and kill you painlessly if you were in a terrible condition with nothing but pain and misery to look forward to. You could cancel them at anytime,…

Perhaps we could devise some kind of medical implant to do it. Although no doubt somebody here would offer it as a SaaS that triggered when you failed to renew your subscription.

Laughed a little bit too hard at this, 10/10, good joke.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#206

Post by thorin »

wombatmobile wrote: post #127

The important difference between physicians and non-physicians in relation to death is not that doctors understand disease mechanisms. It is that doctor's are familiar with death. Ordinary people aren't as familiar with death, and don't have a wide range of responses to it because society hides it and pretends it doesn't exist. The main place regular people encounter death is on the news as a statistic of war and cri…

"Sitcoms don't include death"

Ricky Gervais isn't afraid of it...Have you seen After Life?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8398600/

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#207

Post by TeMPOraL »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #70
pochekailov wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood people who defend death If there is a tiger chasing you, wouldn't you try to escape or fight? Or just give up and let the tiger eat you? It is natural, tiger also want to eat, right?

If your mental image of people who support the notion of death is people who are just apathetically suicidal, then you're missing the point.

They're not suicidal. But they have this big inconsistency in their ethical framework.

I mean, if an elder gets into a car accident, shouldn't we try to save them? If a fire starts in a nursing home, shouldn't the residents be evacuated and the fire put down? How come that everyone understands the importance of saving lives, but some flip 180 degrees on it if the cause looks "natural" enough and the victim is old enough?

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#208

Post by TeMPOraL »

spywaregorilla wrote: post #66
CobrastanJorji wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just yesterday there was an article on Hacker News attacking Bezos for having the pride and selfishness to attempt to cure aging: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28440348 "Be fine with dying of old age or else you're a villain" is this weird, fundamental, Christian part of our common mythos/ethics/stories. The evil villain seeks immortality. The kindly old witch or wizard or Pope dies peacefully because it is ri…

> There are a thousand downsides and challenges that come with a solution to old age, but that doesn't mean leaving aging in place is better. Sure, not by default, but on the merits of those downside, you probably should conclude that it is in fact better to have people age. Especially if it serves to only be available to the rich and powerful. That's just a shortcut to utter dystopia.

Should you?

I think most people would think that a poor person under the rule of a despotic king is still better off alive than dead. So how come that, if the king were to live for hundreds of years, that poor person would suddenly be better off dead?

I feel this line of reasoning boils down to, "if we can't have perfect equality, everyone should die".

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#209

Post by denton-scratch »

IncRnd wrote: post #81
amatecha wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I know someone who said for basically their entire adult life "if I ever get like that, just shoot me" and meant it quite seriously. Unfortunately, they indeed spent their last few years gradually degrading in the throes of dementia. Very sad to see, and even more sad to know they would have absolutely hated being left to "rot" in such a way. The only consolation is the person hopefully didn't "know"? Who knows…

People say all sorts of things, but if they don't commit to writing directions down, how are people supposed to know what the person really wanted? Also, someone might say one thing, until death becomes immanent, and then they realize they want something else.

I have written a formal, witnessed statement of my wishes, in the event that I'm unable to utter them. My physician has a copy; there's a copy in my desk-drawer at home, with my will.

I understand that different health authorities here have different policies on the registration and application of such "living wills". I have no confidence that if I get sick in the wrong place, my statement will even be noticed, let alone respected. Also, there's no reason why a paramedic coming to my home would know to look in my desk-drawer (I live on my own), and so discover that I don't want any CPR, ever.

And ultimately, these living wills are advisory only; medics can't be sued for ignoring them.

It's a bloody mess. I really hope I don't ever get demented.

Re: How Doctors die. It’s not like the rest of us (2016)

#210

Post by TeMPOraL »

dinkleberg wrote: post #58
pochekailov wrote: post #36

Today's medicine is focused to treat the diseases, refusing to admit that people at 70-80 years old die not from disease, but from the old age. Everybody but a few enthusiasts refuse to treat ageing instead of cancer or heart diseases. People in general refuse to treat ageing as a disease, thinking it is something natural. I would not want a couple more miserable years on earth, I want a few million years of a health…

Is it fair to future generations who are yet to be born to write off the possibility of their ever being born because we're selfish and want to live forever? There is some limit to the number of humans we can support on earth, so if everyone is living millions of years (or more realistically let's say hundreds of years) we would have to drastically cut the world's reproduction rates. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I…

> I feel like that is the classic hubris of mankind to aspire to become gods. We want to control nature and life, yet our limited knowledge prevents us from understanding the ramifications of our actions until it is too late.

But we are becoming gods. The problem isn't with the aspiration, the problem is that we currently suck at being gods and need to get better at it.

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