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

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

#41

Post by amelius »

fsloth wrote: post #28
Odenwaelder wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What unsettles me is cancer. I did my PhD in cancer research, lost relatives to it and discovered how bad it is. I would do anything to prevent getting it, but I know there's no way. May his family and friends find peace.

Can you elaborate what makes cancer any more frightening than any other things that may get us? Is it the threat of pain? As long as we are mortal our journey is a finite one anyway.

If you have lost relatives to cancer, it means it runs in the family. That, I suppose, makes it worse than any other disease, i.e., the threat becomes more real.

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

#42

Post by Odenwaelder »

fsloth wrote: post #28
Odenwaelder wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What unsettles me is cancer. I did my PhD in cancer research, lost relatives to it and discovered how bad it is. I would do anything to prevent getting it, but I know there's no way. May his family and friends find peace.

Can you elaborate what makes cancer any more frightening than any other things that may get us? Is it the threat of pain? As long as we are mortal our journey is a finite one anyway.

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 multicellular life. Is that comforting? Maybe on a bigger perspective. What makes it bad for humans is that they know what's happening.

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

#43

Post by draw_down »

mlong169 wrote: post #39

I don't know this man, nor will it matter what I write here one way or another, but morally, I'm at odds with this person decision to humanly kill himself. I have no words of encouragement or wisdom, as Nihilism is itself the end of hope. God speed, and may the Lord have mercy on your soul. Which might be an oxymoron, since that conceptual framework was rejected in favor of the easy button, I suppose. Peace

Fortunately he didn't/doesn't need to care what you think. Peace

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

#44

Post by toxican »

fsloth wrote: post #29
LeanderK wrote: post #24

This keeps me up at night. I hope the collective advancement in science makes it possible to defeat cancer some day. I believe/hope that my contribution as a insignificant CS-student helps somebody develop tools that help somebody researching etc. I am really convinced that every advancement is connected somehow and the collective improvement in efficiency and livings standards makes it possible to commit more resour…

We all die at some point. While I too abhor cancer I find hard to fear it more than any other thing that can kill me - a stroke, a car accident, etc. The universe is out to get us - we've evolved into tough bastard but we've not defeated mortality.

Cancer seems more scary to me than a stroke or a fatal car accident because you can try to prevent those things. Health choices can decrease chances of a stroke, being an alert/careful driver can decrease chance of an accident. Cancer though...I mean yeah you can avoid longterm sun exposure or not smoke, but there are so many out-there types of cancers that just swoop in out of nowhere that you don't stand a chance of preventing.

Obviously you can't live your life in fear like that, but I think there's good reason to be more fearful or at least angry about cancer than something like a stroke/wreck.

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

#45

Post by Odenwaelder »

amelius wrote: post #41
fsloth wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate what makes cancer any more frightening than any other things that may get us? Is it the threat of pain? As long as we are mortal our journey is a finite one anyway.

If you have lost relatives to cancer, it means it runs in the family. That, I suppose, makes it worse than any other disease, i.e., the threat becomes more real.

Luckily, there's no evidence that it really runs in my family genetically. The threat still becomes more real as I have witnessed it.

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

#46

Post by dgacmu »

mlong169 wrote: post #39

I don't know this man, nor will it matter what I write here one way or another, but morally, I'm at odds with this person decision to humanly kill himself. I have no words of encouragement or wisdom, as Nihilism is itself the end of hope. God speed, and may the Lord have mercy on your soul. Which might be an oxymoron, since that conceptual framework was rejected in favor of the easy button, I suppose. Peace

You should probably read the back story before you hop on your moral horse. He has terminal cancer that's metastasized in both of his lungs. http://hintjens.com/blog:115

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

#47

Post by DanielBMarkham »

sabmalik wrote: post #40
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nyah. I'm 51 years old and buried my parents. Death is real and probably closer than I imagine. Perhaps it's the productization of death? I received this news as a retweet in my Twitter feed. Next to it was a bit.ly link about Configuration Management tools, the announcement of a speaker at a conference, and a famous quote from Einstein. Right now on HN it's #4. Next to it is a blog post about tools and frameworks an…

I am in 2 minds about this. Part of me agrees with you but the other part of me doesn't. Personally, I feel death (and afterlife) has played an important role in popularising (selling?) religion.It is still a difficult subject to talk about, in some cultures even joking about your own death is a big no-no. Maybe this is the best way to break this barrier and understand that death is "normal" and it's okay to talk abo…

I agree with what I think you're saying, but the right words can be very tricky here.

Maybe this "productization" will get us all to a point where we are all okay talking about it openly and frankly, without making a big deal about it?

What's a "big deal"? For my friend, I knew her and she seemed like a nice person. I did not know her that well, though. The first couple of times somebody posted how sad they were on her wall, I was moved. The second couple of times, sad to say, not so much. By the time we got to 20 or 30, I was both annoyed -- and angry at myself for being annoyed.

How about her husband? He got to watch her die, bury her, and then watch all this come in, day-after-day. Two months later he was dead.

Social networks take everything and genericize it. What was a big deal to me was probably a huge deal to him. Assuming those little bits were somehow part of who she was, you can't just assume that they were the same kind of "big deal" to everyone involved. To me, to the husband, to the still living kid. [ed: and it's not right to try to force it into the same kind of deal for everybody. That's dehumanizing.]

I'm a transhumanist and I think the singularity is coming and I'm okay with that. But as we evolve, we have to stop and take a freaking look at what we're doing. Software may be eating the world, but the world is not all the same stuff. The differences matter.

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

#48

Post by barrkel »

throwanem wrote: post #37
meric wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of her consciousness lives through your memories and mirror neurons. Not just in the bucket of bits. Thanks for sharing.

This use of 'just' is curious. It suggests that some degree of a person's consciousness inheres in their Facebook account. Is this intentional? If so, will you explain how you arrive at that conclusion?

This isn't the forum for that discussion.

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

#49

Post by lintiness »

toxican wrote: post #44
fsloth wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We all die at some point. While I too abhor cancer I find hard to fear it more than any other thing that can kill me - a stroke, a car accident, etc. The universe is out to get us - we've evolved into tough bastard but we've not defeated mortality.

Cancer seems more scary to me than a stroke or a fatal car accident because you can try to prevent those things. Health choices can decrease chances of a stroke, being an alert/careful driver can decrease chance of an accident. Cancer though...I mean yeah you can avoid longterm sun exposure or not smoke, but there are so many out-there types of cancers that just swoop in out of nowhere that you don't stand a chance o…

with terminal cancer, you get time to set your life in order, say goodbye to your friends and family, and try to make a difference (pertinent given the example set by p).

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

#50

Post by DanielBMarkham »

Freak_NL wrote: post #19
Overtonwindow wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, the comments are unsettling, they seem to disregard or not take serious Peter's wishes and plans. As the practice of euthanasia becomes more common place perhaps it will get easier to discuss but, like you, I'm having a hard time putting into words my thoughts on this....

Death has always been something that came to you — naturally or via some agency — and not the other way around; and only rarely is its time known beforehand (i.e., executions). It is a relatively modern phenomenon that we actively seek death in these cases, and decide when to go whilst being a part of the community around you . Sure there are the customs of elderly tribesmen wondering off into the wilderness to die,…

Perhaps the Hallmarks of the world can introduce a nice line of cards for the occasion?

Best comment of the thread. Made me smile.

I assume that we'll be inventing new traditions as we go along. Should be fun to watch different ones being tried out.

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