Living Vs Being Alive

[Juggz]

I read this story earlier and it's utterly heartbreaking. I couldn't help feel that perhaps the poor woman would have been better off not surviving. What kind of standard of life is too low that keeping someone alive in a savagely incapacitated state is the preferable option? Similarly, Michael Schumacher, the multiple F1 champion, has been kept alive in a near-vegetative state for several years. Where is the life in just existing?

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-47488187

[Wiseblood]

Another case was the old Deftones bassist. Terrible existence.

[Weltenfeind]

Death- Pull the plug
Memory's all that's left behind
As I lay and wait to die
Little do they know
That I hear their choice of life
End it now, it is the only way
Too cruel, that is what they say
Release me from this lonely world
There is no hope
Why don't you
Pull the plug
Let me pass away
Pull the plug
Don't want to live this way
Once I had full control of my life
I now behold a machine decides my fate
End it now, it's all to late
What has now been days, it seems like years
To stay like this is what I fear
Life ends...

[Emphyrio]

That's awful. Poor girl and poor parents.

On a similar note, I've always been amazed at parents that have children with severe special needs. Their lives get completely swallowed up in caring for them. I'm sure it sounds callous but if these needs are discovered during pregnancy, there's no way I'd be able to not recommend an abortion. And what happens when the parents die? If there aren't any siblings what happens? If there are siblings, that's another generation whose lives get taken over caring for the person.

We all only have 1 life, what a terrifying existence if it's largely spent caring for someone.

[Eoin McLove]

I imagine that if it's your own kid and your own circumstances change you adapt and your entire world view changes.  Perhaps your raison d'etre becomes about the welfare of others.  You could argue that meaning would spring forth from that adversity.  Still,  you wouldn't with it on anyone at the same time.

[Emphyrio]

Ya, suppose you have to be in that situation. Horrendous all the same.

[Wiseblood]

There's fairly grim footage of Covan from Decapitated on YouTube and holy fuck what a struggle. Mental injuries do seem more cruel than physical disabilities, although that's no walk in the park either.

[Juggz]

Aye, brain injuries are particularly cruel. Technology has started to slightly mitigate the effects of bodily injuries but there is practically nothing which can be done when the brain has been harmed. It's a brutal existence.

[Pedrito]

I think we've become quite blasé about a lot of thjngs these days, almost regressing in a way when it comes to these ideas and I include.myself in this criticism. Our parents' generation seemed to be far more sympathetic to people of disability. I take Christy Brown as a prime example. He overcame everything to become a really interesting writer and his story really is awe inspiring in many ways.

In the past, and certainly in Ireland, there were far more people of disability about the place. I think abortion really will see the end of much of it, which in a strange way goes back to ideas about eugenics and biological superiority, that the Nazis of all people were really into. Of course we're not allowed to talk about these things nowadays..the discourse has become very black and white but there is no denying that the majority, when given the option, would now terminate the pregnancy, and I'm sure I would come to a similar conclusion.

That said, I know of many families who have children or brothers and sisters almost similar to the girl above, and the love they have for them, and what they add to their lives seems to be something quite special. Something that I imagine can only be understood by experiencing or living it. This is not a pro/anti abortion rant by the way, but more of a pointing out of attitudes that I have felt changing for quite a while now, a type of Darwinian survival of the fittest vibe that seems to have taken hold throughout Europe and further on. Maybe it's related to recent economic difficulties, but definitely attitudes have changed. That said, I personally don't see why we would keep a person who suffers so much alive..however I think Tolkien captured it beautifully:

Pity? It's a pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends.