Is life always worth living?

Question

No seriously. Think about it. A lot of people unanimously agree that nobody should kill themselves or be killed, and let's just assume for the moment that this won't cause overpopulation.

Is there any life that is NOT worth living?

Answer 1

Absolutely. I can easily think of circumstances where life would be pointless.

Suppose, for example, you had no brain to speak of but your body was still alive. This is not too uncommon medically, really, but even then there is sometimes a point to retaining life, if your organs might be used for other purposes. So let's go further.

Not only do you have no brain, but you also have every disease known to man that will not kill you outright. Your organs are useless, and your continued existance is probably a threat to everyone around you.

Even this might be redeemable with the proper medical technology. So we'll have to assume that such does not exist (as it doesn't now). We will also have to assume that there is not some other vastly compelling reason to keep you alive that would otherwise offset the threat you pose. You are just an ordinary plague-ridden shmoe with no brain.

Life at that point is easily not worth living. If I get that bad, I hope you'll do me the service of ending it for me. Nor is that necessarily the only example... just the most obvious one. Thank you.

Answer 2

Life being defined as the act of living, and living being defined [for humans] as creatively or intelligently influencing what goes on around you, then

Yes, life is always worth living because you can always use what skills you possess to affect the world around you. Everyone can light a path for someone else, and in doing so find themselves.

Now assuming that you are in a "vegetative" state, I believe that it is up to every individual to choose for themselves. I personally believe that if I reach that point, and there is no way to awaken my mind long enough for me to form coherent thoughts, then I would probably rather not be hanging around, and I would leave it to my spouse.

And if I were to be near-fatally injured, such as having massive blood loss, and I could be saved, but at the potential cost of others lives, I would hope that the good of the many prevailed over the good of the few.

Answer 3

The cool thing about life is you have free will. Which is, ironically, why we are able to kill ourselves.
But, if you feel your life is not worth living, realize that the proper way to express the choice of suicide is, "is my life worth living the way it is now?". And if the answer is no, the next question is " what can I change about the way my life is now to make it worth living?"
Sometimes we face circumstances we can't stand, and we can't seem to change them. But we can change the way we perceive them. Christopher Reeve I always felt made a great example of horrible, unchangeable circumstances. But he chose to live his life bravely.
In the book "Johnny get your gun", a soldier is paralyzed, deaf and blind. All day long he perceives that rats are crawling over his body. His only way to communicate is by blinking his eyes.
Extreme example but I think I would want to opt out of that one.
Another example might be an untreatable psychosis that results in causing great sorrow and pain to other people. In a moment of lucidity I might choose death.
There are some terminal diseases that are excrutiatingly painful.
If the narcotics weren't working anymore, I might chose to get it over with a little quicker.

One thing for sure, life is the only thing worth living for.

Answer 4

Yes and no.

Yes - take a deep breath every morning when the sunshine beams through your curtain. We should be thankful that another day is gifted to us to live. Think of those whom u love, aroma of the food that you love, good book, nice music, dance and sports. Life is too good to be true as we will never know what is in-store for us each day. There's always something new and exciting around the corner, isn't it?

No - if you are in ill-health and when you stop loving.. Loving people, nature, food, and most importantly, life. Once you stop loving, life is not worth living anymore.

Answer 5

No. Of course there are situations when it is better to kill yourself. If you've been injured so badly that you have no chance of recovery and will only die a horrible and painful death, you should probably kill yourself if you can. What remains of life is not worth living since it will only be pure agony. I don't think anybody can persuasively argue that life is always worth living.

Answer 6

What? Looking for people that want to kill them selves?
Examples of shitty situation that people can end up in? Its tragic to be in such a situation, and in moments like those its up to your courage to decide if you live or die. As you can see I'm still here and I didn't regret that decision that my courage made. But back to your question yes there is a life that is NOT worth living! no further details needed

Answer 7

"Life worth living" I feel is a anachronism , we can debate both sides of the coin , the good reasons ... all the wonderful possibilities , and the other side , painful situations that merits termination , but to me seams that all comes down to fear of the un-known , for Christians , have I been good enough to merit haven?, for the non believers.. is all over !!, for the other religions each its own , and for the governments a lose of income through taxes . So is life worth living? I think each of us should have the right to decide for our own , it is my life not yours , it is my right to live if I want to or not , not the government ... not my family ... not the neighbour , It is my right !!! Then we can live in peace , and perhaps then ,life is worth living.

Answer 8

One type of life that is not worth living is when a person is in a vegitative state, surviving only on artificial respiration. The key here is the artificial respiration. What kind of life do you suppose that person is living. She/he cannot communicate, the brain does not function at even 10%. She/he lies motionless, her muscles withering to nothing. I believe whole-heartedly that it is selfish to keep this person alive. It's cruel. How do we know the kind of pain or hell or even the lack thereof this person might feel? NO. this person deserves peace. She deserves to move from the realm of this earth, to the loving arms of God.

Answer 9

nonetheless if the only innovations and one journey is all that exists there can not be no longer something after dying (because of the fact nothingness can not be an merchandise, in effortless terms a assessment of residences of gadgets), assuming there can we nevertheless would anticipate something would desire to take place because of the fact if we are incorrect we're not to ever comprehend it. That suggested dying, like the destiny, is carefully unknown, so in a minimum of one rational context there is not any distinction between residing, loss of existence, dreaming and hallucinating. yet journey (i.e. the medical approach of Induction, this is definitively incorrect) tells us that we can comprehend plenty approximately what lies forward in existence, nonetheless no longer rather, a minimum of with slightly success. So, stay or die... it relatively is like of venture. probably dying is infinitely undesirable; probably that's infinitely stable. comprehend nonetheless that we are actually not obliged to stay right here; we've been born against our will, we are right here to forage and journey, we owe the international no longer something.

Answer 10

Life is worth living no matter what the circumstances, life is beautiful and full of surprises. Don't think too much, you will get wrinkle soon. Cheers.