A bad body is better than no body at all. It’s not uncommon for abled people to go “Ew, I’d rather die than get $disability”, but when they do… actually I don’t know if they’re as happy as before after 18 months, because everyone mentions that but gives no cite. Anyway, people after a bad event are less unhappy and get happier faster than they predicted, and will remember afterwards. At least for some disabilities, this depends on people adapting to their condition, rather than putting their life on hold until they get better. (More affective forecasting papers.)
Poke around in the disability blogosphere for more perspectives on that. They range from “My body is awesome, but because it’s not the type you build your world for you call it ‘disabled’”, through “It kinda sucks that you’re not an Olympic-level athlete and you don’t obsess over that all the time; I feel the same way about my disability”, through “It’s miserable when you’re not used to it, but once you adapt it’s not so bad”, to “It’s awful, but still better than being dead”.
The things you’re afraid of aren’t even particularly freaky ones: weakness, limited mobility and endurance, need for support systems, body dysphoria, inability to live as you used to. People live with that every day.
I admit I have no idea what would happen if you lacked a body completely. A head-in-a-jar scenario sounds like locked-in syndrome, which is still better than death. The other scenario could be anything from total sensory deprivation (yeah, that one is probably worse than death) to living in a simulation.
this depends on people adapting to their condition
Also, which condition they get. I could see myself happy in this body with a wheelchair, but I can’t see myself happy as a paraplegic. I think my ideas about how happy I’d be with a disability are pretty realistic. Anything that keeps me from communicating would make me miserable. Anything that makes me dependent on others will be stressful. Not being able to walk I could get around—I could still program and make a living, still communicate, still do something of meaning, still get around. How many of the things you enjoy about life and get meaning from are dependent on your body? There are some conditions that would make pretty much everything that’s meaningful and fun about life impossible. See my R2D2 objection.
“Living is always good” / “Any body at all is good”—hasty generalizations, sorry.
From a legal point of view, a living will is not really very like a will. One’s will contains the directions for distribution of one’s property after death. In short, the key focus of a will is financial.
By contrast, a living will is one’s list of instructions regarding medical treatment when one is unavailable to consult (i.e. unconscious). Do-not-resuscitate requests, and the circumstances when one does and doesn’t want particular intense medical interventions. Also, who should make decisions when your pre-made list does not address a particular circumstance. When one is creating a living will, financial considerations might play a part, but the key focus of a living will is medical, not financial.
A bad body is better than no body at all. It’s not uncommon for abled people to go “Ew, I’d rather die than get $disability”, but when they do… actually I don’t know if they’re as happy as before after 18 months, because everyone mentions that but gives no cite. Anyway, people after a bad event are less unhappy and get happier faster than they predicted, and will remember afterwards. At least for some disabilities, this depends on people adapting to their condition, rather than putting their life on hold until they get better. (More affective forecasting papers.)
Poke around in the disability blogosphere for more perspectives on that. They range from “My body is awesome, but because it’s not the type you build your world for you call it ‘disabled’”, through “It kinda sucks that you’re not an Olympic-level athlete and you don’t obsess over that all the time; I feel the same way about my disability”, through “It’s miserable when you’re not used to it, but once you adapt it’s not so bad”, to “It’s awful, but still better than being dead”.
The things you’re afraid of aren’t even particularly freaky ones: weakness, limited mobility and endurance, need for support systems, body dysphoria, inability to live as you used to. People live with that every day.
I admit I have no idea what would happen if you lacked a body completely. A head-in-a-jar scenario sounds like locked-in syndrome, which is still better than death. The other scenario could be anything from total sensory deprivation (yeah, that one is probably worse than death) to living in a simulation.
Then why do so many people have living wills?
Also, which condition they get. I could see myself happy in this body with a wheelchair, but I can’t see myself happy as a paraplegic. I think my ideas about how happy I’d be with a disability are pretty realistic. Anything that keeps me from communicating would make me miserable. Anything that makes me dependent on others will be stressful. Not being able to walk I could get around—I could still program and make a living, still communicate, still do something of meaning, still get around. How many of the things you enjoy about life and get meaning from are dependent on your body? There are some conditions that would make pretty much everything that’s meaningful and fun about life impossible. See my R2D2 objection.
“Living is always good” / “Any body at all is good”—hasty generalizations, sorry.
From a legal point of view, a living will is not really very like a will. One’s will contains the directions for distribution of one’s property after death. In short, the key focus of a will is financial.
By contrast, a living will is one’s list of instructions regarding medical treatment when one is unavailable to consult (i.e. unconscious). Do-not-resuscitate requests, and the circumstances when one does and doesn’t want particular intense medical interventions. Also, who should make decisions when your pre-made list does not address a particular circumstance. When one is creating a living will, financial considerations might play a part, but the key focus of a living will is medical, not financial.