tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27946614.post1183612306681581749..comments2024-03-07T14:43:21.888-08:00Comments on Whatever I want to write about: From Costa Rica to ... DementiaSriram Khéhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06907731254833435446noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27946614.post-83370482405266262662013-06-30T22:29:58.076-07:002013-06-30T22:29:58.076-07:00I have been thinking about this for a number of ye...I have been thinking about this for a number of years, Ramesh. Decades, I think. Longevity is as much a curse as it is a blessing. It is one of those that is a wonderful example of "be careful what you wish for."<br /><br />A few years ago--maybe ten years ago--one older woman--a friend/relative of my father's--whom I was meeting for the first time ever, said something like this: "science has increased the number of years we live. But the quality of life is horrible. Why do we need then these long lives?"<br /><br />I suspect that she merely vocalized what many people think. Not only in India, but all over the world. Of course, the longer one lives, the probability of various kinds of sufferings and disappointments and pain and everything else also goes up. <br /><br />And the longer we live, the more we become candidates for ailments like Alzheimer's. And here is the worst part of Alzheimer's: the patient kind of slips into an ignorant bliss. So, your prayers for strength to bear the disease should be directed more in favor of the ones who have to care for you because they are the ones who will experience and feel everything. Which is why my friend Dennis cracked the joke that it won't be my problem.<br /><br />And if you look at the economics of aging ... the longer we live, the more we suck up the resources that otherwise families and society will allocate for the future. For the kids. For public infrastructure. For R&D. But, instead, aging becomes an expensive need to meet. And an unproductive investment in that. <br /><br />Right from when I was a teenager, it has scared the heck out of me that I could live way too long. And, dammit, I haven't picked up any wrong habits either. I tell ya, it is one awful nightmare for me.<br /><br />Out of politeness, families do not discuss these issues. As a society, we dare not discuss these issues. Which means we are all living in some collective denial ... <br /><br />BTW, both the articles point out that despite the urgency, not enough money has been invested into understanding Alzheimer's and dementia and such ... I would think that we have, as a contrast, invested way more into viagra and breast implants! We humans are messed up in our preferences and no god can help us ;)Sriram Khéhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06724218458246880137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27946614.post-84778750768149585052013-06-30T19:43:15.797-07:002013-06-30T19:43:15.797-07:00You've raised one of the most difficult of top...You've raised one of the most difficult of topics. Every disease is a horror, but those like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, or even plain dementia, are one of the most awful. Is it worth living when one's mental faculties are destroyed. Millions have been poured into research, for these are "rich man's diseases", but the cure is very elusive, because we are just scratching the surface of the complexities of the brain.<br /><br />Switzerland allows assisted suicide for terminally ill people. There have been cases <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dignitas-suicide-british-man-ends-1920713" rel="nofollow">like this</a> with huge ethical and moral issues.<br /><br />I know you are an atheist, but my own position is a prayer to God, not necessarily to spare me the horrors, but to give me the strength to bear them, if they come to me.Rameshhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11782192840421019943noreply@blogger.com