This past week I saw two articles with the above titles
and was intrigued. “Too Young to Die,
Too Old to Worry” was in The New York
Times and the “Why I Hope to Die at 75” was in The Atlantic.
They both had similar themes:
“Once you get older, 80 in the first article, 75 in the
second, perhaps one should spend less time on preventative medicine and more
time enjoying the more pleasurable things in life.”
“Doubtless, death is a loss. But here is a simple truth
that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many
of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be
worse than death but is nonetheless deprived.”
“At older ages, we desire to not to simply pursue life,
but happiness, and that medicine is important, but it’s not the only means to
this happiness.”
“Since 1960, increases in longevity have been achieved
mainly by extending the lives of people over 60. Rather than saving more young
people, we are stretching out old age. Over the past 50 years, health care
hasn’t slowed the aging process so much as it has slowed the dying process.
And, the contemporary dying process has been elongated.”
Both articles focus on how after certain ages, the benefits
of prevention are not worth the hassles of testing, surgeries and medications.
I agree with the basic premises of these articles and can
only hope to be alive at 75 or 80. The
links to the articles are below:
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