0F (u/0F) - Readit News

0F commented on Van life (cancer edition) finale imgur.com/gallery/prUy1Kt... · Posted by u/BadCookie

refurb · 4 years ago

If you think euthanasia is like abortion you're already contributing to the slippery slope by conflating different situations, but hey nuance has never been HN's strong suit.

"It’s not your business to determine whether or not a person should live.", as a member of society it sure as hell is. If some woman is suffering from post-partum depression (highly treatable) it's societies responsibility that she get proper treatment and not support for killing herself.

0F · 4 years ago

Violating the rights of a minority group based on a moral crusade to “save people”. It’s definitely similar. Similar also in the insane amount of suffering it causes. If you care so much about depressed people then donate some money to the effort to find a cure instead of causing innocent people to suffer with your armchair morality lectures

0F commented on Van life (cancer edition) finale imgur.com/gallery/prUy1Kt... · Posted by u/BadCookie

refurb · 4 years ago

No, the problem is the slippery slope of "this patient wants to die because their life isn't worth living" to "this patient can't communicate, but it's clear their life isn't worth living, so we should end it".

0F · 4 years ago

I just do not see the problem. The urge to live is way stronger than a bad week. The urge to live is strong. And we already have systems in place to determine the course of medical treatment in the case of unresponsiveness, all you’d do is tack on euthanasia.

It’s not your business to determine whether or not a person should live. Why don’t you sit in the corner with people who think it’s their business to determine whether or not women have abortions?

0F commented on Van life (cancer edition) finale imgur.com/gallery/prUy1Kt... · Posted by u/BadCookie

DaltonCoffee · 4 years ago

I found his opinion enlightening and pointed, unlike your own, rather barbed, post.

Also, being in a "position of needing to die" isn't an absolute predicate for debating this issue.

0F · 4 years ago

Apparently it is because the only people who find themselves advocating it are people for whom the topic has become real rather than just words on a screen. Just like everything else in life. Nobody gives a shit until it’s their own skin.

0F commented on Van life (cancer edition) finale imgur.com/gallery/prUy1Kt... · Posted by u/BadCookie

orobanche · 4 years ago

A friend of mine succeeded just over 6 months ago and I regret not joining her every day. I live in a gun-free country so no easy way out. I’m currently in a rural area and considering bashing a policeman’s head in to get his gun and get it over with. The alternative is synthesizing Nembutal myself. All the other techniques are riddled with risks of failure.

0F · 4 years ago

What is causing you enough pain to justify suicide?

Don’t forget about carbon monoxide. It would be much easier and less painful to just get a tent or car and a propane heater. Shooting yourself is way too risky in my opinion.

0F commented on Van life (cancer edition) finale imgur.com/gallery/prUy1Kt... · Posted by u/BadCookie

dvt · 4 years ago

> The only reason right-to-die isn’t something universal is because the dead can’t vote

Oh cut it out. This is a gross oversimplification of an overly complex moral quandary. It misses the point on both sides of the argument -- the agency of the dying and the sanctity of life -- for cheap reddit upvotes. At least familiarize yourself with some of the literature before trying to contribute to the debate.

0F · 4 years ago

I think you’re right. It is too complex for a thread like this. But instead of literature my opinion is informed by my own firsthand experience with terminally ill people and my own fear of dying in an uncontrolled way. But you’re so right that the complexity of these things must be appreciated.

0F commented on Van life (cancer edition) finale imgur.com/gallery/prUy1Kt... · Posted by u/BadCookie

glenngillen · 4 years ago

It’s not that simple. Granting a right to die shifts a heavy burden of responsibility onto the patient. The current situation in most countries is that euthanasia is not legal. That means the patient’s family had a sense of obligation to support a terminal patient as best they can for as long as they can (and in geographies with universal healthcare “family” extends to a much broader definition of society). Granting the patient the right to die also puts them into a place where they have to make considerations about how much of a burden they are to those around them. The status quo allows a terminally ill patient to be selfish without guilt (well, modest amounts of guilt) because the alternative is illegal. It comes at the cost of undue suffering for many at the end. The alternative shifts this and risks people who’d have otherwise been able to eek out some continued enjoyment from what remains being forced into a thought decision out of a sense of guilt and obligation to not burden those around them.

It’s a complicated issue with lots of unsatisfying trade-offs. I’m personally conflicted about which path is better. It’s definitely not as simple as obvious as to which way is better that people want to imply.

0F · 4 years ago

Hard disagree. People already kill themselves. They already reason about how much of a burden they are and they already kill themselves because they think they are too much of a burden. People already do everything that you said.

The only major difference between the two worlds is that in one, death is grizzly, painful and traumatic and usually preceded by an enormous amount of suffering — and in the other death is none of those things.

You are clearly very naive and you clearly have never been in the position of needing to die.

0F commented on Van life (cancer edition) finale imgur.com/gallery/prUy1Kt... · Posted by u/BadCookie

dev_throw · 4 years ago

I recently heard about this in my stage 4 support group. No doctor will go on record that they do it however. God forbid there be dignity in choosing when to shuffle off the mortal coil.

0F · 4 years ago

God bless you.

0F commented on Van life (cancer edition) finale imgur.com/gallery/prUy1Kt... · Posted by u/BadCookie

0F · 4 years ago

The only reason right-to-die isn’t something universal is because the dead can’t vote. They suffer immensely and the usual feedback loop that mitigates societal problems and suffering is cut off. So every day thousands of people suffer terribly for absolutely no reason at all.

Doctors will actually euthanize patients by giving them morphine. They can only legally do it if they are using it to treat pain. They slowly increase the dose as needed. They will hover over an unconscious patient and claim that they are in pain and therefore the morphine dose needs to be increased. They repeat this until the patient dies. It’s a workaround. Because everyone is selfish and stupid, nobody wants to confront reality and just formalize it.

0F commented on Dall-E 2 openai.com/dall-e-2/... · Posted by u/yigitdemirag

coldpie · 4 years ago

Okay. What do you want me to do about it?

0F · 4 years ago

Just know it. Really think deeply about this important issue and try to understand it thoroughly so that you have a chance at converting others. Awareness precedes any preventative initiatives.

Algorithm space is large and guess-checking through it takes a lot of effort even when it’s automated like now. It requires huge amounts of compute. And meaningful progress requires the combined effort of the entire worlds intellectual and compute resources. It sounds implausible at first but this machine learning ecosystem is in fact subject to sanctions. There are extreme but plausible ways of reducing the stream of progress to a trickle. It just requires people to actually wake up to what’s happening.

0F commented on Dall-E 2 openai.com/dall-e-2/... · Posted by u/yigitdemirag

coldpie · 4 years ago

I'm trying to understand your point, because I think I agree with you, but it's covered in so much hyperbole and invective I'm having a hard time getting there. Can you scale it back a little and explain to me what you mean? Something like: AI is going to replace jobs at such scale that our current job-based economic system will collapse?

0F · 4 years ago

Most people get stuck where you are. The fastest way possible to explain it is that it will bring rapid and fundamental change. You could say jobs or terminators but focusing on the specifics is a red herring. It will change everything and the probability of a good outcome is minuscule. It’s playing Russian roulette with the whole world except rather that 1/6 for the good, it’s one in trillions for the bad. The worst and stupidest thing we have ever done.