# If you could live forever, would you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 4, 2012, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742 "2012-02-04T08:29:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/41 "2012-02-05T04:12:13Z")
Definitely not. I’m ready to go whenever. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/42 "2012-02-06T03:54:58Z")
I would not accept this deal. Who would want to live in a world with no age peers, where there is nobody with whom to reminisce about when we experienced youth together and the world was new? Yes, the OP grants a suicide release, but animals are born with a survival instinct, and suicide isn’t easy, even when you’re miserable. I need natural death as a backstop. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/43 "2012-02-06T04:17:23Z")
Given the exact premise in the OP, the odds of you actually living forever, as in thousands of years are pretty small. Even if you were miserable, and just couldn’t work up the nerve to enact the suicide clause, one way or another, the odds of a lethal accident or getting murdered will catch up to you. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/44 "2012-02-06T04:21:10Z")
Sounds like fun. But then, I was a big Highlander fan. I might start carrying a sword. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/45 "2012-02-06T04:29:43Z")
I’d definitely take it. The only downside to immortality is the inevitability of ending up stuck in some situation like having the earth blow up and spending eternity suffocating in space. But the escape clause prevents this liability. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/46 "2012-02-06T04:35:48Z")
Yes! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/47 "2012-02-06T05:42:01Z")
If this was simple immortality without conditions, I’d say hell no. My life is miserable enough already without being forced to endure it for all eternity. Fuck that noise. As it is, with the escape clause, I’d be glad to look five years older. ---
**Author:** ![BeaMyra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@BeaMyra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeaMyra)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/48 "2012-02-06T06:01:28Z")
I would, the thing I hate most about the thought of dying is that I won’t be around to see what happens in the end. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/49 "2012-02-06T16:00:31Z")
Sure. As an aside, my doctor likes bringing up various conversations apparently just out of interest, without pursuing a doctor - patient issue. One time he talked about how people behave when they are at the end of their lives. He said that, regardless of what they said before about not wanting to be hooked up to tubes et cetera, when death is imminent they beg him to do anything possible, anything at all. That is, of course, if they are able. He said there have been almost no exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/50 "2012-02-06T16:02:18Z")
With the “snuff it” clause, yes. Without, no way. ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2012, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/51 "2012-02-06T16:08:10Z")
This basic premise is explored in a book I recently read - “The End Specialist” ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742/52 "2012-02-07T02:16:48Z")
I can somehow see me dashing across the street to sign this contract and getting smashed by a bus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-live-forever-would-you/611742.md?page=2)