# Is there a fate worth than death for you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 21, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595 "2006-06-21T17:18:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595/41 "2006-06-23T10:54:48Z")
Being stuffed in a box… serious claustrophobia issues. > [@](#): > > \*\*Rosencrantz \*\* (or Guildenstern): Do you ever think of yourself as actually dead lying in a box with a lid on it? > > \*\*Guildenstern \*\* (or Rosencrantz): No. > > \*\*Rosencrantz \*\* (or Guildenstern): Nor do I really. It’s silly to be depressed by it. I mean, one thinks of it like being alive in a box, and one keeps forgetting to take into account the fact that one is dead… which should make all the difference… shouldn’t it? I mean, you’d never know you were in a box, would you? It would be just like you were asleep in a box. Not that I’d like to sleep in a box, mind you, not without any air, you’d wake up dead for a start, and then where would you be? In a box. That’s the bit I don’t like frankly. That’s why don’t think of it. Because you’d be helpless? Stuffed in a box like that, I mean, you’d be in there for ever. Even taking into account the fact that you’re dead, it isn’t a pleasant thought. Especially if you’re dead, really… ask yourself, if I asked you straight off… I’m going to stuff you in this box now, would you rather be alive or dead. Naturally, you prefer to be alive. Life in a box is better than no life at all. I expect. You’d have a chance at least. You could lie there thinking well, at least I’m not dead! In a minute somebody is going to bang on the lid and tell me to come out. Hey, you! What’s yer name! Come out of there! ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595/42 "2006-06-23T17:43:19Z")
Why say death is a bad fate. We all do it eventually, nothing bad about it in and of itself. Only the method and timing of death could be a bad thing. So in some sense stubbing my toe is a fate worse than death. Since I’ll definately die some time, but there is no guarantee that I’d ever have to stub my toe. That said I don’t especially feel like dieing at the moment. A painful terminal condition is the only thing I would want to escape via a soon as possible death. Anything else you live through, as it is part of lifes tapestry whether it is sweet or sour. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595/43 "2006-06-23T18:13:32Z")
Death isn’t so bad. At worst, it’s an average fate - it happens to absolutely everyone. If you’re asking if there are things I’d rather die than endure, then hell yes. Dozens, hundreds, thousands. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595/44 "2006-06-23T20:11:48Z")
Pending dementia. Living under a brutal political regime. I mean, I think I could adjust outwardly and resist secretly, if it were just a run-of-the-mill authoritarian society, but if it were like living under the Khmer Rouge or the Taliban I couldn’t manage it. Most apocalyptic scenarios as played out in scads of SF and other speculative fiction. Spending my life farming or hunting and gathering, and camping out, would just plain suck. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595/45 "2006-06-23T21:54:10Z")
[QUOTE=Spectre of Pithecanthropus] Pending dementia. . [/QUOTE] It must already be happening. I meant, **im** pending dementia. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2006, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595/46 "2006-06-24T09:08:01Z")
I’ve no quarrel with death. Being a Christian and a Terry Pratchett fan, I figure it’ll happen when it does, although part of me will be disappointed if it doesn’t involve a skinny guy who SPEAKS IN CAPITAL LETTERS.😉 On the other hand, I’d prefer to delay making his acquaintance for as long as possible. Put me in the club who fears Alzheimers, dementia, and PVS’s. If my mind or soul has deteriorated to where I’m no longer me anymore, then let my body follow my mind into death and remember me as I am now. My mother, as it happens, shares this attitude. I could handle being blind, although I’d want the appropriate modifications to my computer so I could still work on it. I could handle being deaf, although I’d like that less – I’d miss music too much. Even paralysis could be survived. Losing my mind and my will, however, and hurting those I love because they’ve got a body to look after but the soul they loved is gone or nearly so is not something I care to face. Give me a graceful exit while I can still appreciate the people around me and be the person they like and love rather than a faint echo of it. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Clam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@Happy\_Clam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Clam)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2006, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595/47 "2006-06-24T10:47:36Z")
Count me in the “not really” camp. I mean, if I was in severe, prolonged pain I might favour death as a release, but as long as I wasn’t actually in continuous pain I would favour any kind of existence whatsoever rather than death- even if I were paralysed, blind or mad. Given that (IMO) this is the only shot I’ll ever get, I want to make the most of it, and even very poor quality of life (IMO) is infinitely preferable to the finality of death. ---
**Author:** ![mrald](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mrald](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrald)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2006, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595/48 "2006-06-24T11:10:41Z")
We have a resident at the nursing home that can not be still. This poor lady can’t even sit down long enough to use the bathroom, you kind of have to hold her down on the pot until she is done. She will walk herself until she can’t stand and we have to put her in a chair that has a lap table so she can rest, becuase she won’t sit or lay down on her own. The minute you move the tray she is up again. She thinks she is working too, she is always cleaning off tables, wall, floors, people, anything she can get her hands on. Honestly she drives me nuts because you have to stay on her the whole time or she is out doors in in rooms. But I feel so bad for her. I could not handle not being able to just sit down and relax. She won’t even sit to eat!, you have to follow her around and hand her finger food that she may or may not eat. I could not handle that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-fate-worth-than-death-for-you/361595.md?page=2)