PhIG 3

The next PhIG will be on July 4th, 4p.m. at Weiser's. We won't be
celebrating anything much though, since the topic we've hit upon,
influenced in part by something Margaret told us last time, is to do
with the doubtful value of our present power to keep people alive.

A brief remark from a review might give you an idea: "It is certainly
possible that our modern ability to have a longer old age detracts
from our lives rather than adding to them,
and this should be given its share of attention if we are planning to
evaluate old age at all." (If you want to see the whole review, go
here: http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=16128.)

If we are sympathetic to the view that someone simply wouldn't want to
be kept alive in some fashion, and so endorse turning off their
life-support system, what does this do to our views on more active
forms of euthanasia? There have recently been a number of
well-publicised cases in the UK relating to such questions, without so
far producing any changes in the law, as far as I am aware. There is
obviously another connection with our previous topic of pleasure, in
that the quote speaks of what in general gives or takes away value
from our lives. We may not have agreed that it was pure and simply
pleasure last time, but it is perhaps difficult to think that
vegetative survival gives anyone enough to make their life worth
having.

Yours
Ed Brandon

article on happiness

Hi

After our meeting I came across a very interesting article on a long-lasting longitudinal study (of a couple of hundred Harvard undergraduates - including JFK) that started in the '40s. Relates to the happiness stuff by Seligman: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200906/happiness.

Ed