Bioethicist At National Institutes of Health: "Why I Hope To Die At 75"

HughPickens.com writes Ezekiel J. Emanuel, director of the Clinical Bioethics Department at the US National Institutes of Health, writes at The Atlantic that there is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived. "It robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society, the world. It transforms how people experience us, relate to us, and, most important, remember us. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic." Emanuel says that he is isn't asking for more time than is likely nor foreshortening his life but is talking about the kind and amount of health care he will consent to after 75. "Once I have lived to 75, my approach to my health care will completely change. I won't actively end my life. But I won't try to prolong it, either." Emanuel says that Americans seem to be obsessed with exercising, doing mental puzzles, consuming various juice and protein concoctions, sticking to strict diets, and popping vitamins and supplements, all in a valiant effort to cheat death and prolong life as long as possible. "I reject this aspiration. I think this manic desperation to endlessly extend life is misguided and potentially destructive. For many reasons, 75 is a pretty good age to aim to stop."

Comments

His Life

[Anonymous Coward]

His choice. I for one intend to drink every bit of snake oil that I think will keep me alive a little longer, until such time that I decide I don’t want to live any more. George Carlin pretty much summed up my views on all this stuff with his "And don't be pulling any plugs on me either" bit.

Worried about tax dollars pointlessly keeping my mostly useless ass alive (yay for socialized medicine)... hell no. I’ve paid taxes most of my life, many of which have been wasted on stupid nonsense, they can waste a few on me.

I get it if people are in pain, or feel like they can no longer contribute anything, and sitting there watching TV all day just isn’t doing it for them. If you are tired of life, fine, I’m all for giving people the option. On the opposite end you’ve got my Grandfather who is well into his 80’s and just finished remodeling his bathroom, and my friend’s Grandmother who while physically is showing her age, can still hold her end of a conversation, enjoys spending time with people, plays cards, etc.

I propose the Extreme test.

[gurps_npc]

Every year, past 70, take up a new extreme sport. One day you will simply forget to pull the parachute cord. Go out with a bang, doing something that will make the news "80 year old surfs Tsunami"

Re:The WHO

[CrimsonAvenger]

My parents are both 75+.

And still doing fine.

Yeah, they've slowed down a bit, and have some aches and pains they didn't have 20 years ago. But they still walk the dog a mile or so each day. And Dad still mows five acres (give or take, the treeline could have moved some over the last decade) of his yard weekly.

I think this bioethicist bozo is forgetting that "75" is life expectancy at birth. If you make it to 75 today, odds are good you've got another decade or two in you*. And if you're born today, by the time you're 75, you should have four or five decades left*.

* barring unpredictable things like terminal cancer, of course.

Note that my wife's parents were both born in the early 1920's, and both lasted into this decade. Arguably, they'd have both been better off to have died a year earlier than they did (in both cases, their last year was pretty bad), but that still meant 85+ good years starting from before the Great Depression....

Re:The WHO

[avgjoe62]

My Dad suffered from Lewy Body Dementia at the end of his life. Early on with the disease he had days he was OK, other days he would see and talk to people that weren't there.

On one of the days when he was doing OK I told him that he was suffering from dementia and that he was talking to people that weren't really there. He was surprised and asked me to repeat that. When I confirmed that on his bad days he was talking to people that weren't really there his response was, "Well, at least I'll never have no one to talk to."