# When do you plan to die? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 21, 2006, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010 "2006-12-21T02:14:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chasing\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/1 "2006-12-21T02:14:48Z")
I plan to die when I’m between 40 to 50 years of age. I have no desire for immortality or to whither away. I want to die while I am still able to use my body to its fullest. I imagine meeting my death doing something I love. One possibility is that I would ride my bicycle up a mountain, like L’Alpe d’Huez, and on the way down my brakes fail. Then, I would try to stay upright as long as I can before plummeting downwards. How about you? When do you plan to die and why? ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/2 "2006-12-21T02:18:56Z")
Let me guess, you’re in your early 20’s? ---
**Author:** ![Chasing\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/3 "2006-12-21T02:25:19Z")
How did you know? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/4 "2006-12-21T02:30:36Z")
I figure with the way I eat/drink/screw/etc I’ll be lucky to make 30. Ahh hedonism, how I love ye. ---
**Author:** ![NJ\_Kef\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b487fb/32.png) [@NJ\_Kef\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NJ_Kef_1)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/5 "2006-12-21T02:34:17Z")
So you’re only here on earth to enjoy yourself? Interesting. Please get back to us in 30 years and let us know how your plan is working out. By the way, I’m 52 and I haven’t begun to wither, at least not the last time I checked. I have more to say, but I’ve gotta call the cops on a bunch of young whippersnappers playing loud music in front of my house. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/6 "2006-12-21T02:35:33Z")
Shot at age 98 by a jealous-with-cause husband, on the rise, as it were. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chasing\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/7 "2006-12-21T02:39:24Z")
[QUOTE=NJ\_Kef] So you’re only here on earth to enjoy yourself? Interesting. Please get back to us in 30 years and let us know how your plan is working out. By the way, I’m 52 and I haven’t begun to wither, at least not the last time I checked. I have more to say, but I’ve gotta call the cops on a bunch of young whippersnappers playing loud music in front of my house. [/QUOTE] If life is not for enjoyment, then what is the meaning of life? ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/8 "2006-12-21T02:41:21Z")
[QUOTE=Chasing Dreams] I plan to die when I’m between 40 to 50 years of age. I have no desire for immortality or to whither away. [/QUOTE] Dude! With the advances we are making in medical science and taking care of ourselves better, when you get to be between 40 and 50, your biological clock will probably (barring any life threatening diseases, of course) have you at age 25 or 30! You really wanna call it quits that early??? Additionally, (and I don’t lknow who said it) but once we are born, we begin the process of dying anyway. Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/9 "2006-12-21T02:50:33Z")
40 is the decade of achievement. You’ll start making decent money and be able to take longer vacations and enjoy your home and family. I’m 42 and still have a lot of things that I want to do. I’m thinking I’ll make it into my late 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Chasing\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/10 "2006-12-21T02:56:50Z")
I haven’t heard of these “fountains of youth” you speak of. I would be afraid to undergo these treatments that would mess with our natural biological clocks. I will call it quits when my body does not allow me to do the things I enjoy. I don’t wish to end my life in a wheelchair and requiring care around the clock. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/11 "2006-12-21T03:00:57Z")
[QUOTE=Chasing Dreams] I will call it quits when my body does not allow me to do the things I enjoy. [/QUOTE] There’s the catch. As you mature, you’ll enjoy different things. You may even get old enough to enjoy golf. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/12 "2006-12-21T03:05:35Z")
[QUOTE=Chasing Dreams] I haven’t heard of these “fountains of youth” you speak of. I would be afraid to undergo these treatments that would mess with our natural biological clocks. [/QUOTE] Oh. Okay. Q ---
**Author:** ![the\_chicken\_of\_exeter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_chicken\_of\_exeter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_chicken_of_exeter)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/13 "2006-12-21T03:06:33Z")
But it’s not like you are going to be doing the tour de france at age 49, then suddenly be unable to get onto a bike at age 50. Aging is gradual, so at what point do you decide to call it quits? ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/14 "2006-12-21T03:06:19Z")
Hoping for death in your 40’s or 50’s is hoping to work until the last day of your life. ---
**Author:** ![Chasing\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/15 "2006-12-21T03:10:03Z")
[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture] There’s the catch. As you mature, you’ll enjoy different things. You may even get old enough to enjoy golf. [/QUOTE] Golf! :eek: That game bores me to hell. I don’t even consider it a sport. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chasing\_Dreams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/258eb7/32.png) [@Chasing\_Dreams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chasing_Dreams)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/16 "2006-12-21T03:12:02Z")
[QUOTE=the chicken of exeter] But it’s not like you are going to be doing the tour de france at age 49, then suddenly be unable to get onto a bike at age 50. Aging is gradual, so at what point do you decide to call it quits? [/QUOTE] That’s where the element of chance comes in. After you ride up enough mountains, your brakes are bound to fail sometime. That’s why I gave a range of when I would like to die because you never know. ---
**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:** [December 21, 2006, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/17 "2006-12-21T03:12:09Z")
I would relectantly concede defeat at the age of 120. But I’d still be trying to convince death to give me five more years. ---
**Author:** ![Caridwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@Caridwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caridwen)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/18 "2006-12-21T03:14:13Z")
[QUOTE=Chasing Dreams] How did you know? [/QUOTE] Only someone 20 would consider 40’s or 50’s and age where you are whithering away. ---
**Author:** ![the\_chicken\_of\_exeter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac8455/32.png) [@the\_chicken\_of\_exeter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_chicken_of_exeter)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/19 "2006-12-21T03:19:19Z")
[QUOTE=Caridwen] Only someone 20 would consider 40’s or 50’s and age where you are whithering away. [/QUOTE] A few years ago I would have said I didn’t want to live past 30. I will be 20 next month and am thinking of starting to revise that figure upwards. :rolleyes: Although I still feel like I don’t want to live in a nursing home staring blankly at a tv screen for the last decade of my life. I worked in a nursing home for a year, I had to stop when i kept getting nightmares about being 90, alone and incontinent. ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/20 "2006-12-21T03:21:15Z")
I’m in my mid-twenties, but looking around at my older relatives and seeing what sort of shape they’re in, I’ve got a pretty good feeling about the next, oh, sixty years of life, at least. My aunts, uncles, and mother are all very physically active in their late forties and fifties, most previous generations made it into their 80s with no problems, and one of my great-grandmothers lived to 102. So, I’m thinking Death will have to pry this life out of my cold, dead hands. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010.md?page=2)