I was just listening to a lecture (from the University Channel podcasts, linked on the right side of weeklyrob) about trends in dying, which is a funny phrase. It’s by the author of “The Living End: The Future of Death, Aging, and Immortality.”
[Amazon US seems to think the title is slightly different, and spells “aging” like ageing, even though the cover shown is titled the way I wrote it above. Amazon U.K. matches the title.]
We all know that back in the day, life expectancy was maybe 25-30 years. This statistic always bothers me, incidentally, because of two reasons:
1. Most people who lived past their childhood lived longer than 30 years. It’s just that so many people died in infancy or childhood.
2. There was a lot more violence back then than there is in Western society today. People think that health was so poor that a 28 year old was an old man, but really he just survived childhood and battle and could have lots and lots of years to go before he dies. If he dies soon, it’ll be because of a blade or infectious disease. Not of old age.
Anyway, it’s obviously true that we’ve made huge strides in health, and not only in live birth rate and survival of childhood. In one study in Iceland, according to this lecture, only about 5% of people who survived childhood in the 1700s lived past 70. Whereas today, about 80% of people do. So that’s a big difference.
But there’s a hitch. We’ve been able to increase life spans dramatically, but have NOT been able to increase *healthy* life spans as dramatically. So people are living longer, but living with chronic disease and dementia longer, too.
Again, that 28 year old back in the day was still strong and more or less healthy until the month that he died. Now, most people die after years of poor health and pain. And worse: according to the lecturer, 30% of people who die in the U.K do so with dementia. That’s thirty percent!
His way of putting it is that death has gone from being acute to being chronic. We’ve gone from dying quickly to dying slowly, over many years.
I don’t want to have dementia. I’d rather just die. It’s more complicated when the issue is chronic illness and pain, but I really can understand people saying, more or less, “I’ve lived a good life. Most of my friends are gone. I can’t enjoy things the way I used to. Everything hurts, or is numb, or is humiliating. I’m ready to go.”
Death can be a sort of easing out. I can understand that completely, and I don’t think it’s horrible or sick, or even depressing. It’s just the next step. I’d prefer it to dementia. I’m letting you know now.
I’m gonna need some kind of sign, you know, so I don’t just go ahead and euthanize you “prematurely” ’cause sometimes I could swear you’re al*ready* demented.
Har har.
Safe word = Flintstones.
I generally agree. In the cancer community, there’s a bit of debate over extending life while diminishing its quality. Sometimes it makes more sense to skip treatment other than symptomatic relief, and die sooner. I always said that if I started to go senile, I’d want to start skydiving, or something like that. “What’s that big brown thing, getting bigger every second. I wonder if it’s friendly.”