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High Risk Ventures

Short term, high risk, very high paying jobs for the terminally ill.
  (+19, -3)(+19, -3)
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An opportunity for people who are diagnosed with very little time to live but are still physically able to perform very dangerous tasks (i.e. working in radiation contaminated areas or the like) for large sums of monetary return which would go directly to their families in the event of their demise. This would provide a way for such individuals to leave something to their families. Though such an arrangement has danger of abuse, many individuals may opt for a resourceful way to serve and gain for their loved ones at the same time.
phasepacket, Dec 10 2000

Joe tried it... http://mrshowbiz.go...heVolcano_1990.html
...and he ended up with Meg Ryan. [PotatoStew, Dec 10 2000, last modified Oct 21 2004]

(?) Terminally ill stunt people http://www.google.c...ill+stunt+people%22
[lubbit, Dec 10 2000, last modified Oct 04 2004]

http://www.nature.c...ll/nm1198_1313.html About half of what you learn in school is wrong. If you live long enough, you get to find out which half. [mouseposture, May 27 2011]

[link]






       Radiation exposure is probably poor, for the reason zippyanna mentions. Other high-risk jobs (whether either you die, or you're fine) would be perfectly suitable, however.
egnor, Dec 11 2000
  

       Our space program has been hampered by being unable to go through a relatively normal cycle of trial & error, because everything MUST work right the first time or astronauts could die. If terminally ill people were given jobs as trial & error astrounauts, with the understanding that they probably won't be coming home, we'd make much faster progress in space technology. I know I'd take that job.
devans, Dec 11 2000
  

       I dunno about Rayfo, but up until a year or so ago, I'd have taken it and I'm not sick.   

       Now I have my fiancee to think of...<grin> Although we could make a husband and wife team...
StarChaser, Dec 11 2000
  

       Nobody's said it yet, so I will -- the underlying premise here is that terminally ill people are "dispensible." Hmfph!   

       OK, how much money did you say we're talking about?
danrue, Dec 11 2000
  

       No, danrue, it's not that they are dispensible or expendable. It's that they are dying anyway. Some jobs have very high risks, and pay accordingly. People who know they are about to die may be more willing to take huge risks, so that they can provide for their family after they die. Or so that they can accomplish something great, so they will be remembered for that, rather than wasting away. Or they might wish to not experience the wassting away at all, and be willing to take jobs that are effectively suicide, so they can die while their bodies are still whole and healthy. One last ditch effort to achieve immortality through their deeds.
devans, Dec 12 2000
  

       Right, PotatoStew (re: link). For things like that -- wild adventures that have some huge benefit to others -- this would be awesome. Problem is, those things don't really crop up often. It's a great situation though, as long as you're comfortable with death (as I am, even at my young age of 17). It's not that what you do doesn't matter; it's that it matters in a radically different way.
decafsilicon, Aug 27 2001
  

       I like the concept, but the idea would be both impractical and unethical. If extremely high-paying jobs were available, vast numbers of other individuals in dire circumstances or otherwise would be more than willing to undertake the work. By limiting the work only to terminally ill individuals, the high wages would be driven downward - to maintain them, the public would have to subsidize the program. Furthermore, it would be ethically questionable and very difficult in a legal sense to discriminate and provide these jobs only to teminally ill individuals.
somewhatindustrious, Jan 04 2010
  

       This idea has been baked as least once to my knowlege but for a slightly different reason: the people involved were prisonproof. Note: following possibly apocryphal. In the 1980s people with advanced HIV were employed as drug runnners. Once their HIV status became clear, law enforcement officials were reluctant to keep them imprisoned as the local penal system would then be responsible for their large medical bills. The drugs were confiscated and the drugrunners sent on their way, preferably out of state.
bungston, Jan 04 2010
  

       In my experience, terminally ill people are ... well ... *sick* Too sick to work. For this idea you would need a medical condition that could be diagnosed at a very early stage, was uniformly fatal, but not too quickly, and had a fairly predictable course. There are a few neurological conditions like that, but you'd probably want to stay away from the ones that affect a person's ability to make decisions. ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gherig's disese) would probably meet your requirements.   

       This idea is baked, in a sense: patients with terminal illnesses often volunteer for clinical research, accepting risk in in exchange for a resourceful way to serve and gain for others with the same diagnosis (or for their family, if it happens to be a heritable condition).   

       Usually, the subject of the research is the disease that's killing the patient, but not necessarily: for example, the demonstration that new neurons are formed in adult human brains relied on cancer patients' decision to die altruisticly (given that they were going to die in any case.)
mouseposture, Jan 05 2010
  

       New neurons are created in the human brain? Link? I always wondered what made the textbooks so definitive on that while other animals have brain cells coming and going.
pashute, May 26 2011
  

       Your wish is my command, effendi <link>
mouseposture, May 27 2011
  
      
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