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Cake day: March 31st, 2024

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  • Let’s say I will live to age 90. Morbidity stats would suggest that the last 10 or so years would be utterly unenjoyable, perhaps even torturous. As well as chronic illnesses causing pain, I might be suffering from dementia and/or have lost my eyesight, hearing or ability to walk.

    However, I might be destined to die suddenly at age 65, in reasonable health and with all my faculties in working order. So, to answer your question, one would need to know one’s expected lifespan and likely state of health. To a certain degree, this is possible given the science around heredity and genetic testing (UK insurance companies are not allowed to take genetic testing into account when underwriting policies).

    Another factor is how much one is enjoying one’s current existence: if you’re hating life, you wouldn’t want to spend more time in the present especially if you believe the future will be better, and vice-versa. Of course, there’s no way to know how things will pan out until someone invents a time machine.

    Personally, I wouldn’t be willing to make any decisions without a lot more data!