# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Barking\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/61 "2006-12-21T23:20:38Z")
If I’m lucky, 87 years old, by Whorehouse heart attack. How’s that for dying doing something you love? ---
**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, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/62 "2006-12-21T23:52:30Z")
Would I off myself if I got a terminal illness? Working in the ER, I have often asked myself this question, and haven’t been able to come up with a definite answer. On the one hand, I don’t wanna hurt like I see some of my patients hurting, but on the other, I get a lot of enjoyment from my grandkids, and although I think they’d understand, I’m wondering if I might not be being selfish by asking for a morphine drip, and missing out on seeing their lives developing? Or am I being selfish, by _wanting_ to hang around and making everyone’s life harder because I am suffering? The only definite answer I have been able to come up with is: Hanging in there as long as there’s _some_ kind of hope, and asking for that drip when the “time” comes and hope I will be able to recognize it. But to off myself right away, without giving medical science a chance to turn me around? No. Not at age 56, anyway. Q ---
**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 22, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/63 "2006-12-22T00:25:45Z")
[QUOTE=NinjaChick] As long as I’m still physically active (not by nursing-home standards, by normal standards), I’ll be happy. As soon as that starts going, I’ll probably ditch the safety precautions and end up riding my bike off a cliff or something. I’ve seen 50-year-olds who can kick my ass, and I’ve seen people start withering away way too early. Granted, the way my knees have been since I was a teenager, that’ll probably be sometime a decade or two from now. [/QUOTE] Hey, we should organize a group thing in a few years. We can be like the lemmings and ride off the cliffs in a big group. 😛 …joking ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/64 "2006-12-22T00:27:24Z")
[QUOTE=LionelHutz405] “Smoking will kill me 10 years earlier” is a lot easier to handle than 'Smoking will put me on oxygen, unable to do ANYTHING fun for my final 10 years." [/QUOTE] Indeed. If there’s a worse way to go than lung cancer & emphysema, I don’t need to know about it. (I had a dear Aunt who went this way.) Among those who die of the consequences of an unhealthy habit, at least 10 suffer and linger for each one that goes quickly and peacefully. ---
**Author:** ![According\_to\_Pliny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@According\_to\_Pliny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/According_to_Pliny)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/65 "2006-12-22T00:41:54Z")
My dad died 30 years from my age, my grandfathers at 15 and 50 years. So I’m trying to decide whether to save for a long retirement or borrow so much they can never get it back in time 😉 ---
**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 22, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/66 "2006-12-22T00:46:06Z")
[QUOTE=Chasing Dreams] For me, the meaning of life is to do things that I find fun while obeying the Golden Rule. I don’t need to live to an old age to decide that one. Well, actually there is no “meaning of life”. Once you die, you will return to the ground and become nothing more. [/QUOTE] As for me, there is no meaning in fun for fun’s sake. There is only fun.\* I don’t know what the meaning of life is. I only glimpse the meaningfulness of my own existence through my relationships and encounters with others. Death may be the end of consciousness, which sucks to be sure, but the love, compassion, loyalty, forgiveness, and generosity we’ve shared persists. The world may no longer affect us when we’re dead, but it certainly continues being affected by us. \*_Longer way to run, But it’s so much fun Fun will take the longer way around You can take a shorter cut Yes, it’s quicker, but Fun will take the longer way around_ _ **Long Way Around** _, George Clinton / Parliament ---
**Author:** ![Mellivora\_capensis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mellivora\_capensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mellivora_capensis)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/67 "2006-12-22T13:33:53Z")
[QUOTE=Eve] No. No, you really do not want to get old and demented in a nursing home. Trust me on this one. It is not cool. [/QUOTE] Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![brewha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/68 "2006-12-22T15:16:16Z")
I’m planning on chartering a cargo plane on my 100th birthday. I’ll then have that plane fly over Everest and open the cargo door. I’m gonna hop on my motorcycle, gun the throttle and fly out of the back of the plane. Not only will it me a great way to go, but I’ll always have the title of the oldest man on top of Everest. Theoretically, I’ll still be alive when I _first_ reach the summit. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/69 "2006-12-22T15:36:53Z")
[QUOTE=Xema] And the notion that those in their twenties should be planning their death is simply bizarre. Why not allow for the possibility that you’ll learn and change a bit in the next 20 years? [/QUOTE] Not to mention terribly optimistic. Why not allow for the possibility that you’ll die in the next 20 years? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2006, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/70 "2006-12-22T15:41:51Z")
[QUOTE=Xema] Why not allow for the possibility that you’ll learn and change a bit in the next 20 years? [/QUOTE] Sod twenty. I had it all figured out at 15, 17, 20, 22 and 25, but it was never the same “all” that I had figured out. I’m now 29 and have changed significantly just in the space of the last few years. **Chasing Dreams** , take it easy. If you want to die when you are fifty, then by all means go ahead. No need to plan for it now. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010/71 "2006-12-23T23:51:08Z")
[QUOTE=Xema] And the notion that those in their twenties should be planning their death is simply bizarre. Why not allow for the possibility that you’ll learn and change a bit in the next 20 years? [/QUOTE] Why _not_ plan it? It’s not like it’s set in stone or anything; chances that any of us will go out the way we “plan” to is miniscule, but thinking about how you’d like to go is kinda fun, and imagining that you’ll be able to control the way you die makes it less frightening. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-plan-to-die/385010.md?page=3)