Would you expect an old man around 80 years old to sacrifice his life for a random baby he doesn't know?

Question

classy chick, yeah let's just say he has to donate his heart, assuming that made medical sense and would save the baby's life and kill him.. I mean isn't it just the right thing to do considering you're at the end anyway? But then again you would understand why someone wouldn't want to... so that's what I'm asking

Answer 1

I, too, am offended by your "at the end" remark. Just because someone is older, doesn't make them disposable. And for you to say that people are selfish, tells me that you have a skewed outlook at older people in general.

I have carried an Organ Donor Card in my wallet since I was 17. I had my mother and another woman sign as witnesses. But that DOESN'T mean that my family can just throw my life away because I am old. There are plenty of people who live active and productive lives into their 80's and beyond. No, they can't do the things that they used to, but to insinuate that they have nothing left to live for or contribute to society, really makes me angry.

And, yes, you too may live to be 80 someday. Let's hope at that time, they are not requiring euthanasia when you reach a certain age.  

Answer 2

This is what you said in your profile..."it saddens me that none of you will ever get to see the real me".

Well, I think we HAVE seen the real you. It's not pretty, and your take on life is what is sad. Very warped, and very sad.

Call me selfish if you want, but I happen to value the life of my 91 year old father as dearly as I do of each my nine grandchildren. (And I can rest easy knowing you're not one of them!)

Answer 3

No.  I would not expect anyone, regardless or their age or gender, to sacrifice their life for a stranger, regardless of the age of the stranger.  Most people want to live.  It takes an extraordinary person or extraordinary circumstances for someone to sacrifice their life for another.

Your "you're at the end anyway" comment really bothers me.  The value of one life is not less than the value of another life just because the remaining life expectancy is shorter.  If you want to engage in that kind of logic, then you can also argue that an old man's life is more precious precisely because there is so little time left.

EDITED TO ADD:

"I didn't know there were so many selfish people here, it's almost sickening! I hope one day when I'm 80 and walk by your dying baby I just keep on going without turning a cheek!"

Ladies and Gentleman, behold this moralist, this paragon of virtue and noble soul, hoping for the chance to punish us for our selfishness by walking by our dying babies.  Lovely!  Just lovely!

Answer 4

No.  Of course not.  My Dad died of cancer just short of his 80th birthday.  Every single day of his last year was precious to me, my mom, and my brother.  If that makes me selfish, then I guess I am.  

I hope one day when your mom, dad, or spouse is 80, I get to be the one who pulls the plug on their respirator and remind you while you are boo-hooing that "it [sic] just the right thing to do -- someone else's life is more precious -- is that so hard to accept?"

Answer 5

No. I wouldn't expect it. But it happens. It's amazing really, the idea that someone outside your gene pool, even a total stranger, would act seemingly against instinct to save the young of someone they did not know.

Answer 6

I would never just die to help another person.  When it is my turn to go then I go, but until then I keep living.

Answer 7

I would never think someone HAD to just because they were older than the person in danger. If they did they would be heroic but I wouldn't expect someone to.

Answer 8

No I would not expect that.  He could live another 20 years and there is no guarantee that baby will leave another day even with whatever that man is giving up. My grandfather lived to be 89 and I would not have traded those last 9 years for the live of even my own child.  At 80 years old you have put in alot of work and you deserve to live every day you can.  Who is to say that you about to die anyway, so why not give  up your life now?  That is ridiculously wrong on so many levels.  

Answer 9

What??  Is he donating his heart or something?

Be more specific please!

Answer 10

I wouldn't expect an 80 year old to sacrifice their life for a baby they do know. Are you going on the theory that at 80 your life is over so you should give it up for a baby? Don't be fooled. There's a lot of life left in a whole bunch of older people.  

Answer 11

I would not *expect* anyone to sacrifice their life for someone they don't know.  It doesn't matter their age.

It's not my place to judge anyone for such a thing.  People have a right to cherish their own lives and want to preserve them.

And who is the one to decide the criteria for who should be the one to sacrifice their life?  *You* think that someone who has less time left should make the sacrifice.  Maybe someone else would think that someone who has more people that love them should make the sacrifice.  (An orphan baby vs an old man who has a wife and children and grandchildren.)  Maybe another person would decide that it should be based on race, or religion.

And what would be your idea of a cut-off for the age difference?  A one-year-old vs a newborn?  A ten-year-old vs a newborn?  A fifty year old vs a thirty year old?