I'm not old but I have an Advance Directive on my file that essentially says if I'm fucked then they should let me go. (And I'm in the UK where treatment is free at point of use).

Wow, this is a great post. I never knew about this NHS programme. I wish I had the same where I live.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/end-of-life-care/advance-decis...

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/end-of-life-care/advance-state...

At the risk of sharing some PII, are you willing to share some of the conditions that you set?

Compassion in Dying have some advice about advance decision making.

https://compassionindying.org.uk/making-decisions-and-planni...

It's important to get the right balance around specificity. You need to include some

It's not an NHS programme as such, just that the law recognizes these documents. It would work with a private GP too.

I used a template document but don't recall where I got it.

I’m old and statements like this are… interesting

We all will be old one day, if lucky. My comment was not about you because you happen to be old right now. But are you unfamiliar with typical end of life care in the US? Where the last few years is a constant stream of hospitalizations, rehabilitation, etc with no quality of life and no tangible benefit but a very substantial cost? I find that concept… interesting… as in, I don’t like paying the cost and I don’t intend on participating in it when my time comes. I think this feeling is growing with younger generations because we’ve witnessed what older generations are subjecting themselves and their families to.

I’m familiar with all those issues and have been for years. Have taken both parents through agonizing deaths. Doesn’t make comments like yours less unsettling.

Probably no productive discourse to be had. We fundamentally have different views and I respect that.

I didn't express any views, only emotions. What disturbs me is that our views appear to be very similar. It's just at my age it is not exactly comforting.

Sorry I must have assumed you were dissenting with my stated views. But I now see you're actually not saying much at all so I'm having difficulty understanding what views are behind the statements regarding the feelings you've expressed.

How old should people be allowed to get? Why are the old less valuable to you? A life is a life, is it not?

Well traditionally, nobody allowed old people anything, except what their own family or checkbook could provide.

It had never been this simple. A child dying is pretty universally seen as worse than an 85 year old dying.

I feel like the greatest tragedy of them all is a 53 year old person dying.

Why 53?

No reason. No reason at all. I may change my view on this in a few months however.

When you turn 54?

It’s more about health and quality of life vs our capabilities to delay the inevitable. If you’re unfamiliar with the topic there’s plenty of information out there about how much money is spent and now low quality of life is commonly enough in the final few years.