KD:
: No, but it has almost happened to me before. What these situations taught me is that certain avoidable circumstances put my life at risk. I am fortunate not to (as far as I am aware) be currently afflicted with a terminal illness. If I were I would be very upset and my whole life would change (needless to say.) I am glad that I have made certain lifestyle choices which likely preclude me getting certain diseases early in life. Other diseases are, unfortunately, less avoidable. They are sad, but to say they are unfair and unnatural, or that they must be cured is short-sighted and arrogant. MB:
Contracting a terminal illness is unfortunate, and yes sad. But, developing a way to cure it, or the next best thing, zap it into remission, is not at all selfish or arrogant, I put a much more positive label on it: heroic!!!
KD:
: Why do we need to find cures for terminal disease? If we do, won't we just become increasingly overpopulated? Won't we have a large population of unhappy old people? It seems to me the happiest seniors are usually those people who have chosen healthy lifestyles, not those who contracted illnesses which were subsequently cured. These seniors also often remain more independent and more active in society. Again, what are we meant to die of? What is an acceptable way to die? There must be a few to choose from, right? We don't all just wake up one day and decide we have lived long enough and then die (though surely some individuals do do this.)
MB:
It's not so much as declaring which way you should go is "acceptable". If it's possible to postpone death with luck and modern medicine on your side, then yes it's worth at least making the attempt. I understand that when your number is up, that's it. But it never hurts to try. And if we find cures for currently terminal illnesses, we may find preventions too, meaning less people will contract the illness in the first place. As for "overpopulation", there are sources which declare this as a bullshit myth perpetrated by the liberal media. The earth is much larger than it is given credit for. As for cured "unhappy old people", it's not necessarily true that senior citizens, or people in younger age groups, who have survived an illness will live the rest of their days in dire misery. I know a secretary at work who is a breast cancer survivor. She appears to be in her mid-50's. She seems to be a happy person who is continuing a normal life. I remember seeing a local news special about a man who was severely burned in a house explosion when he was 9. He had to undergo numerous operations and rehabilitations, but he hung in there. Today, he's a successful, highly-respected, surgeon. The wonderful Shriner's organization is responsible for the development of many of the techniques used to treat burn victims and victims of many serious diseases. It is definitely worth making all the effort possible to save human lives. Many are not lucky, that's true. But I don't think you would have wanted someone to give up on you when you had your near-death experience that you mentioned.
KD:
: Humans seem to have created a culture around death. They have attempted to explain death by denying it. Religions and western medicine have done wonders with this. Who pays for this? The animals we insist on testing on.
MB:
It's not that they are "explaining death by denying it". They are doing the very valid and heroic task of keeping the majority of the human race alive and well, and putting off death for as long as possible. As for the animals that are being tested to accomplish this, again, medical experts say this is unavoidable, so unless PETA and others have an alternative, other than sidetracking the issue by saying We all gotta go sometime, who wants to live forever?, I say to those in the medical field, Do what you gotta do.
I refuse to accept that the worth of my existense is equal [below?] that of a shit-eating sewer rat swimming around somewhere beneath DFW Airport.
MWB.
