> "I am not ashamed of my decision," he wrote, "but I don't want it to be discussed publicly either."
Not even in the abstract?
Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland
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Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland
#22[flagged]
This always comes up with this prize, but it’s generally considered one of the Nobel prizes, although it’s not one of the original prizes. Your opinion on whether it should count is up to you, but to call it media manipulation is reading a lot of malice into it.
Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland
#23An interesting choice. It's fascinating that even for very ill or injured people the will to survive is so strong - I wonder if at a certain age this instinct diminishes making a choice like his easier?
> It's fascinating that even for very ill or injured people the will to survive is so strong
For physical illnesses.
Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland
#24I had an old teacher who died almost a year ago. Great guy, very sociable, knew everyone in the little town he lived in. Kept in touch with a lot of students. Good neighbour, friendly guy who'd talk to everyone. He got Alzheimers. He started forgetting stuff, and it frustrated him. He got caught driving dangerously, and cursed the doctor who took away his license. He argued with me about the state of some chicken he…
Yeah but if you are in that state, you probably don’t give a shit and everybody else seems to be the problem. So how do you solve this? When dementia isn’t too far progressed, your life seems to be still worthwhile to live and once the dementia gets worse, it’s too late to realize this.
You could express your wishes about how you would like to be treated in advance, while you are still clear in the head. That’s already possible for other situations, like when you are braindead and entirely dependent on machines to keep you alive, with no chance of recovery.
Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland
#25Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
His next big book, Noise, is possibly even better.
[flagged]
The sheer irony of your unwarranted pedantic critique of the usage of “next” is that all HN threaded comments, including yours, have a “next” link in their headers which clearly does NOT refer to unwritten future comments.
Not sure why I bothered responding to a troll.
Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland
#27Daniel wrote one of my favorite books, Thinking: Fast and Slow ( https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp... ). If you haven't read it, and you're into economics, behavioral psychology, and thinking about thinking then I'd highly recommend it. The first half of the book is especially compelling. You will be missed! Sad to hear he passed, but glad he was able to go out on his own terms.
His next big book, Noise, is possibly even better.
I really didn't get on with that one. Felt very much like a book that could have easily been shortened down to an essay and suffered for the additional length.
Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland
#28[flagged]
That sounds a bit harsh - probably more simplification than manipulation.
Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland
#29Related, a 5 page page PDF, freely downloadable: Should assisted dying be legalised? Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine volume 9, Article number: 3 (2014) Thomas D G Frost, Devan Sinha & Barnabas J Gilbert https://peh-med.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1747-5341... Abstract When an individual facing intractable pain is given an estimate of a few months to live, does hastening death become a viable and…
A quote from the above: > It is difficult to reconcile that citizens may have the right to do almost anything to and with their own bodies– from participating in extreme sports to having elective plastic surgery– yet a terminal patient cannot choose to avoid experiencing additional months of discomfort or loss of dignity in their final months of life.
One issue I think about a fair bit is that without legal assisted suicide aside from all the usual issues with unassisted suicide you need to end things even earlier to make sure you do it while still physically capable: with age the risk of physical debilitation increases sharply, a bad fall or a small stroke will see you in the hospital or incapable of moving an arm. Which is on top of the risks of mental debilitation taking away your right to self determination (through simple incompetence).