# Live or die? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 26, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178 "2004-04-26T23:47:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/1 "2004-04-26T23:47:54Z")
If you were dianosed with a terminal illness, no cure at all, and you would die in a week to a month, what would you do? This illness is extremly painful, and kills you within a month. There is no cure what so ever, and NO ONE lives from it. Would you kill yourself, before it killed you, or stay positive? ---
**Author:** ![partlycloudy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/partlycloudy/32/3114_2.png) [@partlycloudy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/partlycloudy)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/2 "2004-04-26T23:56:14Z")
I would get as many of my closest friends/people I love together and go to Europe and live it up! ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/3 "2004-04-27T00:02:22Z")
> [@LoganDear](#): > > I would get as many of my closest friends/people I love together and go to Europe and live it up! … and don’t forget the painkillers! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/4 "2004-04-27T00:47:24Z")
No, I wouldn’t kill myself, but I’d like some expensive pain control (even if this happens at the expense of consciousness toward the end. What would I do? Quit the diet, for a start, but I have far too many unfulfilled plans to be able to make a snap decision which ones to properly pursue; give me some time to think… ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/5 "2004-04-27T02:51:30Z")
Hmmm, would I rather go quickly and quietly, or make my family watch me waste away in horrible pain? Gimme the blue juice, baby. ---
**Author:** ![Roadwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/6 "2004-04-27T02:55:46Z")
I believe that this is the only life here on Earth I will ever have. I’ll take it to the last second. ---
**Author:** ![d\_redguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@d\_redguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/d_redguy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/7 "2004-04-27T04:03:24Z")
Well, I know one thing. I would definitely start smoking again. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/8 "2004-04-27T04:12:46Z")
I’d take death. If I knew there was no hope, there’s no point in living. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/9 "2004-04-27T04:49:24Z")
Pray for a healing 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BonoVox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@BonoVox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BonoVox)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/10 "2004-04-27T05:17:45Z")
Already got a terminal illness, only about 70 years to go… ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/11 "2004-04-27T06:26:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Would you kill yourself, before it killed you, or stay positive? What’s so negative about controlling one’s own destiny? Were I single, I think I’d buy a sailboat, morphine and a handgun and try to hold a wake at the harbor before casting off, but I’m married with kids and that changes things a little. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/12 "2004-04-27T07:07:12Z")
I’d spend my last days trying new things that I always promised myself I’d try before I died. (Nothing specific in mind, but I’m sure I’ll have a fairly good list by then.) If I weren’t already hopped up on other things (who knows what my stance on intoxicants will be at that point in my life?), I’d get hopped up on painkillers. I’d take my wife or GF and/or kids (if I had them at that point) to Europe or somewhere we’d never been before, and really live it up. They would all have those last happy days to remember me by. ---
**Author:** ![Freejooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Freejooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freejooky)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/13 "2004-04-27T07:30:24Z")
Two chicks at once! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/14 "2004-04-27T12:23:49Z")
I’d take it to the end. With my luck, if I offed myself a cure would be found the next day. ---
**Author:** ![Fenneth\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Fenneth\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenneth_Jr)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/15 "2004-04-27T12:26:55Z")
And with my luck, I’d be in a car wreck on my way to the hospital to recieve the cure. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![myrnajean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@myrnajean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myrnajean)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/16 "2004-04-27T13:07:52Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I’d take death. If I knew there was no hope, there’s no point in living. Thats silly, we’ll ALL going to die, theres no hope of getting around that, the rest is just timing… Strange how we all kind of fool ourselves into believing that we’re not just going to die in the end, even if you quit smoking, do the atkins diet, run 6 miles a day, eat only raw foods, whatever, in the end, you’ll be just as dead as the rest of us, you’ll just be a better looking corpse. ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/17 "2004-04-27T15:06:55Z")
I’d live an extra three months, just because I end up that awkward by circumstance. As for what I would do, well what wouldn’t I try to do. Honestly I would probably do all those things that you wish you had done, you know, find that girl you fancied like crazy at school and plant one on her lips, or go punch that jackass that bullied you. It would probably give me more courage than I have today, man I wish I could do those things now. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/18 "2004-04-27T15:10:44Z")
I’d get the best drugs I could buy including some smack(always wondered what it was like) take them hopefully ODing fast. Failing that lots and lots of pain killers washed down with whiskey. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/19 "2004-04-27T15:34:18Z")
Stick with it to the end, and then stop all pain killers at the very end. I want to see what’s coming next with a clear head. My wife’s mother had pancreatic cancer and only lived 7 weeks from diagnosis. She was in horrible pain and on morphine up until about a 2 hours before she died. She asked that the drip be turned off and she had a very clear headed conversation with each of her 3 daughters saying goodbye, etc. At the end, she just closed her eyes and died. That’s the way to go. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178/20 "2004-04-27T23:00:50Z")
I’d try to put my affairs in order. At least finish up the outlines for the stories I haven’t written yet, and send them to a friend with a request to finish them. Then I’d either… a) Collapse into hysterical catatonia. b) Jump off the Golden Gate Bridge, wearing a nice suit. c) Buy a plane ticket to Northern Alaska, find my way to lonely, frozen mountaintop, cover myself in a white sheet, and go to sleep. or c) Two words: Slim Pickins. (“Yeeee-HAAAA!”) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/live-or-die/242178.md?page=2)