Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 306 posts

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#271

Post by heuermh »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #239
escot wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an immense amount of software work to be done in biotech. Molecular biology research is in need of better automation, analysis, visualization techniques, and on and on. We need folks at all levels. I entered biotech as a web developer and have been able to pick more challenging problems to approach on a monthly basis. We know next to nothing about the human body. Im optimistic that tech will help out us on a…

My background is distributed computing/grid computing. How can I contribute?

At the UC Berkeley AMPLab we're working on scaling genomics [0], all open source under Apache 2 license. Or more generally, any of the Open Bioinformatics Foundation (OBF)[1] projects could use a hand, open source licenses vary.

[0] - https://github.com/bigdatagenomics/adam

[1] - https://www.open-bio.org/wiki/Main_Page

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#272

Post by ajb »

ajb wrote: post #78
Odenwaelder wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it's more frightening because we're more likely to develop cancer than most other diseases, it occurs for the most part purely randomly and chances are high that it leads to a slow and painful death. Cancers evolve to resist drugs and radiation, and due to the nature of evolution, you are unable to tell if and when it happens. As I wrote under another article, cancer is a fundamental dread of all higher multi…

Sibling comment by 'icantdrive' is 'dead', but I don't see why because it is not offensive.

That seems to be fixed, thanks mods.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#273

Post by jwildeboer »

happy-go-lucky wrote: post #213
jwildeboer wrote: post #33

I have known Pieter since around 2002. We didn't meet or talk that often, but usually we would have a fun few hours every FOSDEM. On one of those occasions we defined "our" religion, stallmanism.com Pieter transferred the site and domain to me a few days ago. In the past few months I have been almost obsessed with consuming everything he wrote and published. It is exactly my way of thinking. Of questioning reality an…

"God is Us, God is the Community."

There is no God. But there is the life FAQ. https://hintjens.gitbooks.io/confessions-of-a-necromancer/co...

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#274

Post by nsxwolf »

Delmania wrote: post #155
nsxwolf wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poster shouldn't have called it an "easy button", but I think there should be one surviving comment on here that stands in opposition to euthanasia, so I'll just leave this here: I am morally opposed to euthanasia.

> I am morally opposed to euthanasia. Then let's hope you never develop terminal cancer.

I've witnessed several family members die of terminal cancer. All received adequate palliative care and did not suffer.

But thanks for your concern.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#275

Post by nommm-nommm »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #242
fsloth wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty obvious to me most people debating how unethical euthanasia is have no exposure to needlessly prolonged suffering or just favor dogmatic cruelty over humane treatment of people. The kind of folks who think mother Theresa was a saint with her horror houses of suffering.

Some of the biggest critics of euthanasia are the disabled.

For example: http://notdeadyet.com

https://dredf.org/assisted_suicide/assistedsuicide.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/06/disability...

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#276

Post by duaneb »

int_19h wrote: post #263
duaneb wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Living for 500 years sounds exhausting, pointless, terrible for the environment and my descendants, and a selfish use of resources.

Exhausting and pointless are obviously subjective. As for the environmental issues and being selfish, this doesn't have anything to do with how long you live, but rather with how you live. Obviously, a society with life expectation that is so long would have to reduce the birth rates substantially (or, rather, keep them the same in the births-per-lifetime department). But if you can do that, then there's no reason wh…

> You could say it's "selfish" to live one life where there could be ten, but how can one be selfish with respect to non-existing persons?

It's more selfishly using the resources younger people can use. If you're eighty, I'd rather feed the eight year old. Until we move beyond resource constraints (lol) this is going to be a major effect of the rich being able to afford long lives AND food and the poor affording neither.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#278

Post by ams6110 »

wtracy wrote: post #163
fsloth wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty obvious to me most people debating how unethical euthanasia is have no exposure to needlessly prolonged suffering or just favor dogmatic cruelty over humane treatment of people. The kind of folks who think mother Theresa was a saint with her horror houses of suffering.

It amazes me how many people will favor putting a suffering animal out of its misery, then fight tooth and nail against offering that same mercy to their fellow human beings.

It's because (correctly, in my view) we value human life more than animal life. Killing an animal in a humane way is not morally wrong; killing a human usually is.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#279

Post by bbcbasic »

JamesBarney wrote: post #262
happy-go-lucky wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 8. Revalue your time > Stop wasting your time on commuting, boring jobs, meetings, TV. Do only things that you feel are worthwhile, with people you like. If this means a cut in income, so be it. Be the person you really want to be. Don't take it all too seriously, we all die. Thank you.

Just spent 9 hours in a conference arguing about how we are going to implement 12 months worth of features which are slated release in 3 months. Quote hits very close to home.

This is your fallback then:

> 10. Want nothing, accept everything

> Above all, explore the world without desire or demand, and be tolerant of whatever happens. Most people are nice, and even the others teach us. When you want nothing, you cannot be disappointed. When you accept everything, you will see beauty in every moment.

Re: I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words.

#280

Post by CamperBob2 »

nommm-nommm wrote: post #242
fsloth wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty obvious to me most people debating how unethical euthanasia is have no exposure to needlessly prolonged suffering or just favor dogmatic cruelty over humane treatment of people. The kind of folks who think mother Theresa was a saint with her horror houses of suffering.

Some of the biggest critics of euthanasia are the disabled.

There's an unsettling undercurrent of thought in the disabled community: "What if society decides I'm more trouble than I'm worth?" Some of their opposition to legalized euthanasia probably comes from that, and some from religious motivation.

Obviously neither justification is valid as a basis for making laws that apply to us all, but on the other hand, how do you tell them their concerns aren't worth listening to? Some cultures have practiced selective involuntary euthanasia in the recent past, so you can't say "It'll never happen."

Post reply on HN