# Would you choose a severing of all your current emotional connections, or certain death? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 7, 2010, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974 "2010-02-07T00:49:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/21 "2010-02-07T15:50:41Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Yeah, life would suck, but it wouldn’t suck enough to choose death. So I choose life. I choose a fucking big television… Whoops. Sorry. It really, really, depends. I mean, if I have no further emotional connection, am I still going to feel responsible? Guilty? Angry? Who am I kidding? Being relieved of emotional connection is nowhere near the relief from responsibility. Choose death. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/22 "2010-02-07T16:16:06Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Don’t you become a sociopath with the treatment? > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I don’t think so. You may not still love your spouse, but it doesn’t seem to mean that you won’t feel sympathy for someone being hurt. I’d still be worried I’d be wrapping naked people up in saran wrap before cutting them into small pieces and tossing them in the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/23 "2010-02-07T16:55:27Z")
I’ll take the cure. Best case, I’m in the lucky ten percent who can reconnect with people; still unfortunate, but I’d get over it. If not, even if I can’t form emotional bonds, life may not completely suck. I won’t know until I try it, and, worst-case scenario, I off myself. Given that I can always keep death in reserve, I see no reason to jump for it. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/24 "2010-02-07T17:32:18Z")
A question: are we talking about a life without caring about emotional connections, or a life without emotional connections but still very much wanting them? The former would be a life much diminished but still very livable. The latter would be torture, but still, I think, livable. There would still be many joys available to me and ways I could make a contribution to the world. BTW, my reaction to the thread title, before reading the OP, was “Isn’t that the choice that people going into hiding for something like the witness protection program make?” ---
**Author:** ![torie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@torie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torie)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/25 "2010-02-07T21:43:58Z")
No longer loving my children may cause them intolerable pain. But then again, so may my death. So what would cause my boys the most pain, dying because I love them very much or living and I no longer love them? Someone still needs to care for them, but I have relatives who I know would take great care of them. So given anyone can provide them with their physical needs, the only special thing I can give them is their mother’s love. If I cannot give them that, then perhaps I’m really no good to them at all. Even so, I think I would choose the cure, and write myself notes about my feelings for my boys and refer to them often later on. I would fake it. Maybe I could talk myself in having it both ways. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/26 "2010-02-07T22:04:20Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’d still be worried I’d be wrapping naked people up in saran wrap before cutting them into small pieces and tossing them in the ocean. The original version of my comment above also had a comment like this. Maybe we can get together for TV night and mock _Dexter_ for being too soppy. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/27 "2010-02-07T22:09:02Z")
I’d just buy a gun and shoot myself before the pain starts. Agonizing death vs. a life not worth living is no choice. A quick painless death with my loved ones still in my heart is best. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/28 "2010-02-07T22:15:42Z")
Pop me off thanks. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/29 "2010-02-07T23:03:34Z")
Death. The lack of emotional connections to my loved ones means that I would have died already–the stuff that makes me me is in my emotional connection to the world and its inhabitants–but without the closure of a death that could just be mourned. It’s really a similar question to “Death or life in a coma or PVS?” Death isn’t the worst thing in the world. It’s not even close. ---
**Author:** ![Rala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@Rala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rala)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/30 "2010-02-08T01:55:53Z")
Does this include the emotional connection I feel to God? ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/31 "2010-02-08T15:14:17Z")
Why would anyone jump straight to death? Particularly with the “bone-crushing pain” element of the whole thing. I’m with **runcible spoon,** give me the cure and I’ll hope to beat the odds. My loved ones would be pretty pissed off if I didn’t even try to stay with them. ---
**Author:** ![otternell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecc23a/32.png) [@otternell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/otternell)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/32 "2010-02-08T15:22:13Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > To answer your question in a serious way, if I can’t have a dog to bond with then just go ahead and shoot me now. that sums it up pretty well for me. ---
**Author:** ![Headrush042](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Headrush042](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Headrush042)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/33 "2010-02-08T15:26:04Z")
Well, the OP does mention a chemically-induced coma to avoid the bone-crunching pain. I’d take the cure. Even with a complete severing of my emotions, I can still contribute to family and society – greater good, and all that. While I’d be incapable of experiencing the joys of emotional connection – and I’d know this on an intellectual level – it wouldn’t matter, as I’d be incapable of feeling despair over it. Plus, there’s always the possibility down the line that my new condition could be treated, too. I don’t think I’d go all Dexter on the world, as my moral and ethical conclusions are reached intellectually, rather than emotionally. ---
**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:** [February 8, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/34 "2010-02-08T16:01:03Z")
I want to live! ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/35 "2010-02-08T17:41:39Z")
> [@Chopper9760](#): > > Why would anyone jump straight to death? Particularly with the “bone-crushing pain” element of the whole thing. > > I’m with **runcible spoon,** give me the cure and I’ll hope to beat the odds. My loved ones would be pretty pissed off if I didn’t even try to stay with them. But if you beat the odds, you are still only capable of “superficial attachments.” No thank you. ---
**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:** [February 8, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/36 "2010-02-08T17:43:29Z")
Give me the cure. There’s an obvious weasel, alas. Your friends and family know that you would love them if you were able to, and as long as they remember that, everything’s fine. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/37 "2010-02-08T17:52:44Z")
For me, the question becomes, if I go into it knowing about the effects, how well do I think I can fake it? It might be worth a try. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/38 "2010-02-08T17:54:19Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Give me the cure. There’s an obvious weasel, alas. Your friends and family know that you would love them if you were able to, and as long as they remember that, everything’s fine. If I take the example of my grandmother who had Alzheimer, I doubt this is true. We knew she would love us if she could, but it was still devastating. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/39 "2010-02-08T18:23:45Z")
If I would not care about whether or not I’d have emotional connections, I’d choose it without a second thought. However, since I’m personally not opposed to euthanasia in any form, and would consider this new life pointless, I’d choose death. Why bother being alive in a fashion that I wouldn’t even be able to enjoy? Once I cease to enjoy life, I have no great compunction to keep it going ---
**Author:** ![Gustav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Gustav](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gustav)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974/40 "2010-02-08T18:25:29Z")
I take the cure of course. It doesn’t sound so bad, pretty much just your basic emotional “reset” button, for better or for worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if a good emotional purge every 20 years or so would be pretty healthy and refreshing, cerebral measles or no. Edit: Oh, I see, I missed the part about probably not being able to form future connections. Oh well, c’est la vie. Still kind of a mixed bag, emotional connections kinda suck a lot of the time anyway. Might be liberating. Certainly not worth commiting suicide over. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-choose-a-severing-of-all-your-current-emotional-connections-or-certain-death/527974.md?page=3)