Big Big Question

If not, did you used to get enough sleep? What do you do instead of getting enough sleep?

Or are you getting too much sleep?

And where does your sense of what’s enough and whether you’re getting it come from? Your doctor? Folk wisdom? Self-assessment?

You discover you have a disease which will eventually kill you if it is left untreated. It could take weeks or years. There are a few treatment options available.

The cost of the treatment is not a factor - you have great health insurance.

The treatments offered to you may have serious side effects, but they could alleviate your symptoms and make you feel a lot better.

While treating your disease is not a guarantee, there is a very good chance it could cure the disease, or significantly extend your lifespan. (This extension of your lifespan would not involve a decrease in the quality of your life.)

If you choose not to treat the disease (not for any moral or religious reasons - simply because you don’t care if you live or die) is it suicide? Please elaborate on your answer.

(I’m not sick, it’s just a discussion I was having with someone.)

Recently, I watched a (much discussed) “60 Minutes” episode about a potential cancer cure. I know that sort of news story pops up all the time. Like most, this is probably much ado about nothing. But let’s pretend its true. Five years from now, we’re able to cure all cancer.

My initial thought is “That would be great.” Would it? Naturally, it would be great for anyone with cancer (and that persons loved ones), but surely the outcome wouldn’t be as simple as cancer is cured, happily ever after, hooray.

Would a cancer cure impact the population is a major (harmful?) way? What would it mean for insurance companies? Cigarette companies? Unemployment rates? Etc.

I can think of two “what if” scenarios with which you can frame answers, and either is acceptable:

1. The cure is mostly used in 1st World Countries. Cancer is wiped out in the US, England, Germany, etc. But poorer nations can’t afford it.

2. The cure is inexpensive (or the expense is somehow mitigated — say with massive foreign aid) and the entire world is rid of cancer.

If you want, you can spin this question even further. What if medical science achieved its goals and disease was wiped out altogether? This IS what scientists are trying to do, and it’s remotely possible that with advances in genetic research, nanotechnology and other fields, a day will come when no one dies of a disease. Let’s assume that people can still die of old age (I know you could frame that as a disease, but I’m trying to keep this from being about immortal beings). Unless you got into a car accident or something, you’d be guaranteed a 120-year life. How would this change the world?

It’s four in the morning, and I’m awake with a sore throat. I cannot stand a freakin’ sore throat: I can’t ignore it, and it doesn’t daze me such that I can just drift drearily through it. Two thumbs down.

What’s the symptom that bugs you most? Worst minor malady? And why?

Pet animals have a degree of maintenance cost built in that their owners implicitly accept up front: food, shots, routine and incidental medical care.  But now and then a pet gets seriously injured, or seriously ill, and the cost becomes a serious and likely emotionally wrenching question:  how much is too much?

If you have pets, what’s your pet line?   Have you crossed it before?  Approached it?  Had to make the practical decision despite the pain?  Spent the money even if you didn’t have it?  What happened?

And if you don’t have (or haven’t had) pets, is this something you’ve factored into your thinking about a bepetted (or pet-free) future?

Is your pet line a cumulative total (x dollars ever), or a per-incident limit (y dollars per incident, regardless of past history)?

(Humongous sympathy and good thoughts to the close friends who’ve inspired this.)

Big ol’ What If premise: let’s presume that some affliction — say, a viral pandemic — dooms every human on the planet to permanent blindness within a few months of the spread of the affliction. The complete failure of every human eyeball on the planet, accurately predicted but unstoppable.

Could civilization effectively brace itself for the loss of sight? How would we prepare? What would we have to give up?

1. What’s your take on government welfare versus personal charity? Should it be the role of government to help the poor and needy or should individuals do it?

2. If you think individuals should care for the poor, do you think such a system is practical in today’s society?

3. Should people be forced to help the poor at all?

4. Is the government really wasteful? Would charities be more efficient? Would businesses?

Blatant ripoff: FMF

From Mind Hacks, would you vaccinate someone against an illegal drug, or take one yourself? Should such a vaccine be widely administered to the public? If further progress is made on vaccinations for other illicit substances, could this end the decades long war on drugs, and what would be the likelihood that the general American populace would be vaccinated, voluntarily or otherwise?

Your close family member is in a coma. The doctors say 3 weeks or 3 months, you decide. What would you do?

The philosophy of eugenics, “a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention”, is usually spoken of as an evil thing. In the 20th century we’ve seen things like forced sterilization of certain classes of people, and the Nazi “racial purity” programs.

But if we separate the concept from its uglier implementations, is there anything morally wrong with a philosophy of encouraging the development of desirable traits in the gene pool? What would be some morally acceptable ways of implementing such a philosophy? (Whether by a government, social group, organization, or whatever.)

How would you price out the human body, if we’re willing to assume willing sellers and willing buyers?

Certainly there are limited white- and black-market examples that exist already, from organ transplantation (and organ harvesting!) to blood donation and sperm banks. But let’s assume it’s all fair game: you’re willing to sell any part of your body to a willing buyer — assuming you could live, at least a short while, to enjoy the profits.

So, what are you selling, and what’s it worth to you? How many kidneys equal a liver? Can you spare an eye? What’s the angle on a healthy human heart vs. an artificial model?