Philosophical Questions: Death

[ysabetwordsmith]

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.


Would you want to know you are going to die before hand or die suddenly without warning?

It depends on the type of death and other context.

Advance planning is useful if there are things you still need to do before you die. If you have already done those things, it is less useful -- though it doesn't take long to run out and plant one last oak tree.

Time to say goodbye to friends and family is useful if you have people you are close to. If not, it isn't very useful.

In general, a quick clean death is greatly preferable to a long miserable one. This puts even an unexpected death ahead of almost every fatal illness and many serious injuries.

If your tradition, or you personally, provides pre-death activities then you might not want to miss those. Quite a lot of packing up after a life can be done if you know its end is approaching.

Of the two, a sudden unexpected death -- especially if violent -- has a higher chance of "stranding" a soul who is too confused to move on properly. If you know what you're doing and/or your religion has a robust set of death escorts, this is less of a concern.

Comments

[jacieleigh]

I want the best of both worlds. I would like to know, so I can get certain things sorted, say my goodbyes, and perhaps even give some things away. But I don't want to linger, be immobile and suffer from a lengthy downslide, especially a painful one. It's bad enough to be unable to do simple things for yourself (food prep, bathing, etc.), but for that to go on for a long period time doesn't sound like any fun at all.

So yeah, would want to know, but when the time comes, I hope I go in my sleep. I hope to live a long happy life and have an honest doctor who can give me some idea when the end is closing in...

[elinox]

Ballpark the week in a given year and that works for me. Then I can get things in order and plan for it, like going on one last trip somewhere and spending the rest of the time with my kitties.

I'd prefer not violet, because pain sucks, but if it's quick and clean I'd probably still take that over wasting away in a hospital bed for months.

[(Anonymous)]

What with the whole [waves hands at everything] of the past few years, I'm beginning to think evetime (well, adults) should have their Death Stuff sorted out at any given time. But of course life and humans and feelings are all very messy.

Yeah, I've got some emotional things going on around this topic.

Also doesn't help that the last death I was involved in (natural death of a relative) was fast/unexpected enough that the person couldn't plan but slow enough that the rest of us had to.

...and I ended up feeling I had to emotionally support someone who I'd've preferred to take a step back from. But emergencies and family obligations and... :/

So, complications.