Question When is it time to get on the medical intervention train and when should you leave well enough alone? As I have gotten older, and my friends have gotten older, every doctor visit feels like stepping on a train that will soon speed up so much you can't get off - so fast you can't even see the landscape outside the window anymore. Chronic medication, more tests...preventive examinations, just one more, just one more. I understand that these things prolong life, but how do you distinguish treatable medical conditions from normal aging? How do you go gently into that good night?

Accepted:
October 21, 2005

Comments

It seems to me that the answer to this question depends on the answerto at least four other questions: (1) Under what conditions does onecount as living a life that is worth living? (2) Would a given medicalintervention allow me to continue to live a life that is worth living?(3) What obligations do I have to others (and in particular, does mycontinuing to live allow me to meet certain obligations to others, ordoes my continuing to live put morally unacceptable burdens on others)?and (4) Would a given medical intervention allow me to meet my moralobligations? Of course, the answers to these questions, and the weight that one should give to the answers to these questions, are verydifficult to determine.