h a l f b a k e r yAmbivalent? Are you sure?
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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.
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]
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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. |
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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. |
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I dunno about Rayfo, but up until a year or so ago, I'd have taken it and I'm not sick. |
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Now I have my fiancee to think of...<grin> Although we could make a husband and wife team... |
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Nobody's said it yet, so I will -- the underlying premise here is that terminally ill people are "dispensible." Hmfph! |
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OK, how much money did you say we're talking about? |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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). |
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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.) |
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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. |
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Your wish is my command, effendi <link> |
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