# Would you sell part of your life?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-sell-part-of-your-life/488982>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 10, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-sell-part-of-your-life/488982 "2009-03-10T17:45:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-sell-part-of-your-life/488982/41 "2009-03-29T17:10:05Z")

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I’d be willing to sell the last year of my life, but no more than that (and if it weren’t for fine print item #1, I’d probably turn down the deal, because if I’m fated to die in a car accident at the age of forty, I’d DEFINITELY want that last year). But I don’t see any real downside to taking a painless and instant death at eighty-two over a long slow death at eighty-three.

I don’t think the money would actually give me extra time, since I like my job and plan to keep doing it for as long as possible, but it would definitely mean a more comfortable life with more travel and less anxiety.

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**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-sell-part-of-your-life/488982/42 "2009-03-29T17:58:47Z")

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Of course, five years, absolutely. I would give away years at the end of my life for 30.000 dollars each.

I’ve wondered how much I’d give for a full year at twenty-three. I think I would prize that at 70.000 dollars.

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**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-sell-part-of-your-life/488982/43 "2009-03-29T18:09:19Z")

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> [@Millit\_the\_Frail](#):
>
> A year? I’ll go with a year. A cool million could set me up for life–buy a house/decent car/etc, pay off the student loans, and still have more than half to invest and put away for retirement. My husband and I would still work for a living, but we’d be almost disaster-proof.
> 
> Absolutely worth it for one year, I say. Especially the last one. Most of my relatives who died in their older ages (80s, 90s) had a crappy final year, with hospital stays, cascading illnesses, multiple complications putting them back in the hospital, spending the last few months in a nursing home, etc. It’s almost worth giving up the extra year, even without the money, just to die peacefully in my sleep rather than having a painful, expensive, heart-wrenching decline.

I think the point is that the last year would come sooner, but would be no less agonizing and painful.

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