# Is It Worth Dying For? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 6, 2010, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235 "2010-10-06T11:34:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/41 "2010-10-07T03:39:46Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > That there is nothing that I would die for is really depressing to me. If you are depressed to the point of suicide, then it appears there _is_ something you would die for. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/42 "2010-10-07T03:43:39Z")
What an intriguing question. Isn’t self-preservation one of our base instincts. When push comes to shove, I would think that most of us would do what we needed to do to survive. ---
**Author:** ![lindsaybluth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90db22/32.png) [@lindsaybluth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lindsaybluth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/43 "2010-10-07T04:16:58Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > You guys. After all, I was soldier and that is what we do. This makes me so happy. Despite all the sniping and narcissistic bullshit on here…this makes it worth it. I would only die for my SO and my youngest brother. I think it’s sad that many people haven’t experienced a love so deep for another individual that they would do anything for them. I guess I don’t know how rare it is. ---
**Author:** ![palacheck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e57/32.png) [@palacheck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palacheck)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/44 "2010-10-07T05:18:12Z")
Probably any person under 20 and maybe any _healthy_ person under 40 or so. I imagine I don’t have all that much time anyway so it would be nice to be remembered as a hero. Ideally I’d like to know that I’m not saving some future serial killer, or even just an asshole like Gustav, but what’re you gonna do? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/45 "2010-10-07T08:20:26Z")
At my age I’d risk my life to save any number of people . . . but especially my partner, who is 20 years younger. I’d also risk my life if I could save this country from an enemy that was determined to destroy it (like terrorism). ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/46 "2010-10-07T08:34:48Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > > [@Gustav](#): > > > > I’d sacrifice my entire family tree without a second’s hesitation, if it was my only option to save myself. I’d wipe out every living being on the planet. > > At last, an honest person. It’s difficult to answer the question, as unless one has been in that predicament, it’s impossible to predict what one will do. Would I risk my personal well-being for another? Quite possibly. Would I risk my life? Doubtful. Hey! I’ve \*been \*in that predicament and seen what I’m willing to die for. Just because you haven’t, doesn’t give you the licence to call other posters liars by inference. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/47 "2010-10-07T09:17:37Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > You guys. After all, I was soldier and that is what we do. Just a nitpick, but wasn’t your job not to die for your country, but to ensure the other guy died for his? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/48 "2010-10-07T11:02:34Z")
I intend to die of old age… Oh wait, wrong preposition. I’m not in any kind of shape to be saving someone who’s drowning in a river, and I’m too good at keeping my cool in a stressful situation to do the “jump into the river to save someone who’s drowning, then drown” kind of thing; I might be willing to volunteer my life to save someone else (hostage situation kind of thing) if I thought it would work, but I haven’t been in that kind of situations so I don’t really know. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/49 "2010-10-07T12:53:45Z")
> [@Gustav](#): > > I’d sacrifice my entire family tree without a second’s hesitation, if it was my only option to save myself. I’d wipe out every living being on the planet. This is a noble sentiment but I wonder if you have kids. If I allowed my kids to die so I could live, I’d live the rest of my life in such misery that I’d probably have to end it. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/50 "2010-10-07T13:50:43Z")
I’d gladly die to save my child. I would suffer a martyrs death rather then renounce my savior. I would die for my country. I might sacrifice someone younger in a hostage situation seeing I already have had a full life. I would not die by refusing to hand over cash to a thief, just take the money! I would not die to save a whale or an animal. I would not die for a gang, drugs or some useless violence. Or to do something extremely dangerous to be in say, “The Guinness Book of World Records”. It would have to be noble. For the greater good. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/51 "2010-10-07T13:55:53Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > …trading your life for a single other person is zero-sum. You haven’t saved a life; you’ve _traded_ a life. See, I don’t think it is, depending on who the other person is. I’m childless and likely to remain so; trading my life for, say, my mother’s, would be a zero sum (since she’s not going to have more than the three children she already has), but if the person at risk is someone who’s more likely to have children than I am, then the tradeoff is “1” vs “between 1 and a billion”. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/52 "2010-10-07T16:41:56Z")
> [@statsman1982](#): > > > [@Gustav](#): > > > > I’d sacrifice my entire family tree without a second’s hesitation, if it was my only option to save myself. I’d wipe out every living being on the planet. > > Well, once you’ve killed everyone on the planet, I hope you never need a new pair of glasses. > > As for me, I can think of a special someone I’d die to protect. Time enough at last? 😃 Well, I can see dying to protect, but the “best answer” would still be to destroy the threat instead. Passively lay down my life? NO. Try my best to take him with me? Yes. ---
**Author:** ![PoliticsNut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b2d939/32.png) [@PoliticsNut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoliticsNut)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/53 "2010-10-07T19:25:29Z")
I would die for any members of my family and I would risk my life to help others ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/54 "2010-10-08T00:01:49Z")
> [@Gustav](#): > > I’d sacrifice my entire family tree without a second’s hesitation, if it was my only option to save myself. I’d wipe out every living being on the planet. You’re individually speaking a worse threat to the survival of humanity than Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin. Get rid of the future of billions to save yourself for what only twenty or thirty more years? Anyways I’d die for anything that would produce more benefit than otherwise if I wouldn’t die for. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/55 "2010-10-08T01:09:41Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > > [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > > > That there is nothing that I would die for is really depressing to me. > > There are so many things wrong with that sentence, I don’t even know where to begin to rebut it. I don’t find the situation depressing to the point of suicide as **Mince** pointed out. I’m saying that there is something depressing in not having a belief or cause or even a loved one that you would be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for. It denotes a certain shallowness in one’s life. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/56 "2010-10-08T03:04:35Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Lots of things. More than most, I think. I’d rather die than use violence, for instance, so I guess I’d die for pacifism. I actually personally knew a couple people just like you. One of them was a defenseless professor “friend” that I used to argue with for about 4 years, and who actually used to brag about never wanting to kill anyone who wanted to kill him. It is hard for me to call him, or the others: “friends”, bc I dont think I could call any one who thinks like that a “friend”, it is too much of an alien thought process for me to understand or to share things with. Regardless, your comments, reflect something interesting (strange) in the way you think, because so few people really think like you. I hope you never have any second thoughts, esp at the very end of your life. Unfortunately, my professor acquaintance had second thoughts and from the crime scene it was apparent that he didnt want to die after all and struggled futilely in vain in his last minutes. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![Susanann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Susanann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susanann)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/57 "2010-10-08T03:16:44Z")
> [@elninost0rm](#): > > Immediate family only probably. I really never understood a statement like that. If one is defending his family, then the goal is to kill the attackers, and dying in the process of defending a family dooms the family, so it doesnt make any sense to be willing to die while defending a family. One NEVER is to die in protecting his family, rather, it is the other guy who is to die. Anyway, since my kids are grown up, I already taught them how to protect themselves. However, I am willing to die for freedom. When I was younger, I never understood those who died at the Alamo, but now I understand, and I could easily see myself defending the Alamo at San Antonio in 1836. Yeah, I very likely would have chosen to defend and possibly die at the Alamo. LIkewise, I would have no problem defending my country against a foreign invader, or fighting against any president who tried to suspend our Constitution (as Santa Anna did). If there was a military coup, or an attempted takeover of the USA then I would fight it, fight them, regardless of the odds of my winning. (of course, it helps that I am older ) . ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/58 "2010-10-09T09:41:28Z")
I snicker at those who claim, from the safety of their computer chair, they would forfeit their lives (for whomever), knowing that the opportunity to do so is ridiculously unlikely. You may _feel_ like you’d die to save someone else, but whether you actually would is an unanswerable question. However, I guess it does provides entertaining message board discourse. ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/59 "2010-10-09T09:44:02Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > > [@Gustav](#): > > > > I’d sacrifice my entire family tree without a second’s hesitation, if it was my only option to save myself. I’d wipe out every living being on the planet. > > You’re individually speaking a worse threat to the survival of humanity than Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin. No my friend; the basal human instinct for self-preservation is precisely what sustains our species. ---
**Author:** ![palacheck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a88e57/32.png) [@palacheck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/palacheck)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235/60 "2010-10-09T11:20:10Z")
> [@Mince](#): > > I snicker at those who claim, from the safety of their computer chair, they would forfeit their lives (for whomever), knowing that the opportunity to do so is ridiculously unlikely. You may _feel_ like you’d die to save someone else, but whether you actually would is an unanswerable question. However, I guess it does provides entertaining message board discourse. I’ve risked my life to steal petty cash. I’m pretty sure I could muster up the courage to sacrifice the whopping 5-10 years of life I likely have left to save a freaking kid. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-worth-dying-for/556235.md?page=4)