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Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland

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Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland

#41

Post by stackskipton »

rmccue wrote: post #22
cladopa wrote: post #18

[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.

Argument is that economists knew exactly what would happen when they got linked with Nobel Prizes and help solidify economics as hard science like physics, medicine or math in eyes of the public. Begin debate around how scientific is some economics.

Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland

#42

Post by dooglius »

inglor_cz wrote: post #17
lionkor wrote: post #14

> "I am not ashamed of my decision," he wrote, "but I don't want it to be discussed publicly either."

While I understand him, public personalities cannot really demand to avoid attention on such an existential topic.

The email was a "personal message to close friends", I think it's a reasonable request for him to ask them not to share the information.

Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland

#43

Post by croes »

SeanAnderson wrote: post #5

Daniel 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.

Some of the things in the book have a reproducibility problem so it definitely would need an update

Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland

#44

Post by sarchertech »

So he was very old without any significant problems, but he wanted to avoid the inevitable problems?

If you’ve already made it to 90 with no major issues, you’re expected to make it to 95 and you could make easily live to 100. My wife’s grandad is 90 and he still lives alone, drives, plays golf nearly everyday, and regularly sees his 12 grandchildren and many great grandchildren. He even made the 9 hour trip to come see us last year.

I’m very wary of making it legal for doctors to euthanize an otherwise healthy person who just wants to avoid an eventual decline.

It’s relatively common for families to push people into nursing homes, but in this case there’s an even stronger direct financial incentive. I don’t trust the system to adequately prevent this.

Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland

#45

Post by mosura »

anilgulecha wrote: post #20

I'm part of the Jain community in Bangalore, and the version of this in society exists, called Sallekhna [1], a tradition that's developed over millennia, and this is venerated and celebrated. The philosophical underpinning is giving up of materialness. The practicality of the 5 instances that I witnessed over the past year - typical terminal individuals choose this. They pass away surrounded by loved ones (they typi…

How long does this actually take?

Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland

#46

Post by xpe »

mcdonje wrote: post #38
xpe wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I disagree about "next". I wasn't confused by the original usage. "Next" is more associated with "subsequent" than "upcoming". The "future" component is contextually inferred. Probably nobody at all got confused by that word choice.

> Probably nobody at all got confused by that word choice.

This is overconfidence; e.g. it "it is clear to me, so it must have been clear to everyone else."

Indeed, there is a person in this overall thread [1] saying the use of "next" was ambiguous:

> I literally thought some unpublished book.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45548294

Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland

#47

Post by lotsofpulp »

fjfaase wrote: post #34
basisword wrote: post #2

An 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?

If you have (grand)children, an important reason to wanting to stay alive is often not the fear of dying, but wanting to be there for them and fearing the grief they will endure if you are gone.

My grandparents stuck around too long, so I have the opposite fear of burdening my descendants with having to (if not legally, then via social pressure) spend too much time, money, and energy caring for me.

Re: Daniel Kahneman opted for assisted suicide in Switzerland

#48

Post by Jolter »

lordnacho wrote: post #3

I 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…

Not all Alzheimers patients get aggressive/angry. I know it happens, I’ve known one person who did almost exactly what you describe above. He lived with his partner of many years, and seemed superficially very cogent and together. It was just that he started to see insults and conspiracies against his person everywhere around him. Not until later did the cognitive and memory decline become apparent, giving him a diagnosis that explained his bad behavior.

But my personal anecdata puts that man in a minority. None of my older relatives with Alzheimer’s have become aggressive or troublesome. Worry, anxiety and confusion seem to be much more common states of mind, which admittedly also doesn’t seem like such a fun way to spend your days.

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