So here's a hypothetical situation I'll try to be detailed about because I know how much people love detail in this kind of discussion. Let's say someone has a non-communicable disease. He's in physical pain every day, and it ain't doing his mood much good either. The disease's symptoms can be mitigated, but they cannot be controlled within the patient's price range, because he's American and in my country we consider poor health to be a just punishment for the moral sin of not being wealthy; nor can the disease be cured. He will have good days and bad days, but this disease is something he'll have to live with for the rest of his life.
This patient examines his life as coldly and rationally as he's capable of under the circumstances (though he's aware that his status is probably coloring his judgment to some degree he can't predict), and decides that he will not treat the disease and will let it become fatal. He has a lot of reasons for that, like an inability to afford effective treatment, an unwillingness to prolong his life at the price of the pain it will cost him to do so, and a general sense that he's accomplished more or less everything with his life he intends to accomplish. The end result is still that he's going to let the disease run its fatal course.
Because he expects to die, he tells people about his decision. Though he's in no imminent danger of death right now, nor of death in the foreseeable future, and in fact he intends to go on with his life as he always has until the situation changes to the degree that carrying on becomes unfeasible. He wants to start wrapping up his affairs and to give people time to deal with his condition, though--after all, he's had a lot more time to come to terms with his disease process than you have, so he knows it will require an adjustment period for you--and you're one of the people he tells as part of his preliminary goodbyes.
What do you do if the disease is, for example, a cancer?
What do you if the disease is, for example, a bipolar disorder?
If your answers differ between the examples, why so?
Thanks for your thoughts, and I promise not to argue with anyone about your choices or convictions; though I may have to ask for clarification.
This patient examines his life as coldly and rationally as he's capable of under the circumstances (though he's aware that his status is probably coloring his judgment to some degree he can't predict), and decides that he will not treat the disease and will let it become fatal. He has a lot of reasons for that, like an inability to afford effective treatment, an unwillingness to prolong his life at the price of the pain it will cost him to do so, and a general sense that he's accomplished more or less everything with his life he intends to accomplish. The end result is still that he's going to let the disease run its fatal course.
Because he expects to die, he tells people about his decision. Though he's in no imminent danger of death right now, nor of death in the foreseeable future, and in fact he intends to go on with his life as he always has until the situation changes to the degree that carrying on becomes unfeasible. He wants to start wrapping up his affairs and to give people time to deal with his condition, though--after all, he's had a lot more time to come to terms with his disease process than you have, so he knows it will require an adjustment period for you--and you're one of the people he tells as part of his preliminary goodbyes.
What do you do if the disease is, for example, a cancer?
What do you if the disease is, for example, a bipolar disorder?
If your answers differ between the examples, why so?
Thanks for your thoughts, and I promise not to argue with anyone about your choices or convictions; though I may have to ask for clarification.
