Not everyone has the urge to survive.
Today I heard a man say, when advised to start undergoing dialysis, that he never had been in favor of such a thing. He assured the doctor that he would just take each day as it came without dialysis.
Only 64 years old, he seemed too young to give up on. The doctor persisted. “Would you consider a kidney transplant instead?”
He still didn’t seem interested in the hassle of trying to stay alive. But he assured the doctor he would check with his wife to make sure that she was on the same page as far as life-saving efforts were concerned.
It occurred to me that this man could’ve been a hero if he’d lived at another time in history. If an ancient tribe had needed a human sacrifice to pacify the gods, he could’ve volunteered and would’ve been thanked profusely by the tribe.
If a concentration camp commandant asked for a volunteer to test out the gas chambers to see if the gas concentration was high enough to kill people, the other camp inmates would’ve felt indebted to him for stepping up.
I don’t know his history, but this patient may have already had enough suffering after having been sprayed with Agent Orange in Vietnam. Or after having had a motorcycle crash. He could have some pretty good reasons for giving up the fight at only 64.
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