Would it be worse for you if your 80 year old mother were to die or your 4 year old daughter?
Which would surprise and shock you more? Which would be the thing you are more prepared for, because you already had the thought in your head that this would happen at some time? Which would possibly be so devastating it could also end your relationship to your partner, redefine you as a person and totally change your life?
If we have to choose between having a 75 year old and a 5 year old die, most people would choose the 75 year old. They would be dying relatively soon anyways.
I love both. The "if you had to choose" argument is a horribly utilitaristic one and I'm happy I'm neither related nor acquainted with anybody seriously bringing it up.
This is not a hypothetical. Doctors are literally making these decisions everyday when they practice medice, and the CDC is also making these decisions right now in the context of the coronavirus.
It's based on the egalitarian notion that every human deserves a long and healthy life.
If an older person's life ends a bit earlier than it should have, it's sad. But a child's life ending premature, before they've had much of a life at all, is worse, by most peoples' calculus.
A child does not possess the experience required to appreciate life and death in all its complex meanings, or to have experienced a life which amounts to meaning or legacy.
The completion of life for someone who has truly lived can be as beautiful as it is tragic. Many cultures, including Christianity, celebrate death in some capacity.
Of course death is never desirable, but it is certainly possible for it to be not undesirable in the right context. People who have had near death experiences and lived recount a sublime experience of understanding as if every part of their life and history, every part of reality is exactly in the place it belongs.
I don't imagine this experience is typical for a small child being prodded by strange people in tyvek suits speaking in metaphors about sleeping and telling them white lies about feeling better... So all that is possibly left is the tragic experience of death.
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I'm sorry to ask this .. why are we grateful for this?
Would it be worse for you if your 80 year old mother were to die or your 4 year old daughter?
Which would surprise and shock you more? Which would be the thing you are more prepared for, because you already had the thought in your head that this would happen at some time? Which would possibly be so devastating it could also end your relationship to your partner, redefine you as a person and totally change your life?
When I bury my father, I will be very sad.
If I should have to bury my daughter, I would be devastated.
There are few things that feel utterly "against nature" than a parent outliving a child.
If we have to choose between having a 75 year old and a 5 year old die, most people would choose the 75 year old. They would be dying relatively soon anyways.
I love both. The "if you had to choose" argument is a horribly utilitaristic one and I'm happy I'm neither related nor acquainted with anybody seriously bringing it up.
This is not a hypothetical. Doctors are literally making these decisions everyday when they practice medice, and the CDC is also making these decisions right now in the context of the coronavirus.
It's based on the egalitarian notion that every human deserves a long and healthy life.
If an older person's life ends a bit earlier than it should have, it's sad. But a child's life ending premature, before they've had much of a life at all, is worse, by most peoples' calculus.
horribly utilitaristic invites 'one man's meat is another man's poison.' Lots of people think utility is a higher goal.
A child does not possess the experience required to appreciate life and death in all its complex meanings, or to have experienced a life which amounts to meaning or legacy.
The completion of life for someone who has truly lived can be as beautiful as it is tragic. Many cultures, including Christianity, celebrate death in some capacity.
Of course death is never desirable, but it is certainly possible for it to be not undesirable in the right context. People who have had near death experiences and lived recount a sublime experience of understanding as if every part of their life and history, every part of reality is exactly in the place it belongs.
I don't imagine this experience is typical for a small child being prodded by strange people in tyvek suits speaking in metaphors about sleeping and telling them white lies about feeling better... So all that is possibly left is the tragic experience of death.
If you look at it rationally, this has the "least bad" impact on society among the possible scenarios.
Grateful that it isn’t more deadly
Grateful that healthier individuals (of which there are more) are not as affected