Would you be willing to die for a cure?

32 Comments

You have been visited by aliens and they injected you with a mechanism that cures cancer.

This mechanism will be present in your body for 60 days and then it will expire leaving no trace.

The only way for this cure to be discovered and used by humans is if you die within 60 days. It gets discovered during your autopsy. There is NO way for it to be observed while you are alive. No medical tests can extract it or allow for study of it while you are alive.

So, you have a choice. Do you die to reveal the cure or do you let the cure expire and live on?

You will have the option of medically assisted suicide should you choose to die.

Assume the cure is affordable and will not be hidden away from the public. It will save countless lives.

yes, I would die for this. 44
no, I would not die for this. 39
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Comments ( 32 )
  • anti-hero
    10 years ago | pl

    No. Sorry world. All the cancer patients will die of something else eventually anyway. When your time is up that's it. I enjoy my life too much. I am probably a greedy bastard but at least I am being honest.

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  • NeuroNeptunian
    10 years ago

    I doubt that the concept of population control brings much solace to the thousands of people who lose their loved ones to cancer every year. I love how people are so quick to call "population control" as if people are merely numbers rather than mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters and so on.

    Coming from someone who is young, yes, I would do it. It's not my place to decide who should live and who isn't worth it, cancer devastates both good and bad people. Between myself and millions of people, the choice, to me, is obvious.

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  • thegypsysailor
    10 years ago

    After 66 years on this planet, the human race, in general, has shown me absolutely no reason why I would want to save it from cancer. Of course there are many good and decent individuals, but as a whole, I would be saving them so that they could continue to massacre, rape, hate and exploit each other en masse.
    So no, not in this case.
    Great question, by the way, thank you.

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    • Tommythecat.
      10 years ago

      "I'm tired of this back-slappin' "isn't humanity neat" bullshit. We're a virus with shoes."

      -Bill Hicks

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      • Tichi
        10 years ago

        Psh I'm not even wearing shoes.

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        • Tommythecat.
          10 years ago

          Evolve!

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    • Mister_Nobody
      10 years ago

      Well said.

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      • thegypsysailor
        10 years ago

        Thanks. Are you related to nowhere man, of Beatles fame?

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        • Mister_Nobody
          10 years ago

          Not that I know of, although he could be a third cousin or something I guess.
          Good song.

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  • Anime7
    10 years ago

    I actually think I would die for a cure for cancer. However, I want to be sure that people will use the cure. I want to die knowing I made a change in the world. But I could easily see a greedy pharmaceutical company hide this from the world. If I was guaranteed that cancer would be cured then I think I'll say yes.

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  • PattyTheSailor
    10 years ago

    No. I'm too young to die, and a cure for cancer would pop up sooner or later anyway.

    Plus, I'd rather not leave my video games unfinished. I would HATE to die while my Furret, Typhlusion, Raichu, Skarmory, Eevee and other Eevee all just sit in my Pokemon Crystal game below level 60.

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  • jeebley
    10 years ago

    I can't help but think those that have said "no" haven't really thought about the reality (of this hypothetical situation..lol)....

    Taking pain and suffering away from so many people just by going to sleep forever. Seems obvious...

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  • Kiwi_Bird
    10 years ago

    Firstly, I'd have to ask why aliens injected me full of cancer curing serum (hopefully not in the anus).

    To be honest I'd only kill myself if a loved one had cancer. I couldn't bear to do it otherwise, I like my life too much.

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  • kelili
    10 years ago

    No, absolutely not. I love my life too much to sacrifice for humanity, I'm no hero.

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  • Incomplet
    10 years ago

    If I was nearing the end of my own lifespan, sure.

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  • dom180
    10 years ago

    I'm aghast that anyone would say no, let alone the majority of people. You could save thousands of lives every year for many years indeed. I think it's surprising that anyone would choose their own life over the millions of others they would save - I can think of no better cause to die for.

    It would be an extremely easy decision for me. And that's coming from someone who is young, has a lot of potential, loves being alive and is deeply afraid of death :P

    If they could prove it was true, and that our scientists could access it and understand it and quickly convert it into an affordable cure for all types of cancer around the world, I'd definitely do it. If I knew someone else had the cure for cancer inside them and wasn't prepared to give it up, I'd kill them myself and take away their choice. Sorry, but I just don't think anyone has a right to make the wrong choice when the stakes are so high.

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    • Anime7
      10 years ago

      See now I'm picturing a world scale hunger games between you and this other person. Where you both are aware that each other has the cure and now you both live in constant paranoia that the other is around every corner with a gun or at the top of each building with a sniper rifle. Not going to lie that actually sounds like a beast story that could have some good character development, since you and this person are sympathetic "villains."

      Honestly you can't really blame people for wanting to live. Plus, as I mentioned in my post, who's to say that it will be found but not used due to some corporate douche. Because really, there is no money in healthy people. Granted I'm speaking from an American perspective, where if you're poor you can't afford to get sick. I don't blame people who say no, yeah it sounds selfish. But it doesn't sound right either to kill someone else, when your own life would also save millions. In the end it all boils down to if you can live with the guilt.

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      • dom180
        10 years ago

        I'm not to sort of guy to easily give up his own life, but it's just the outrageous scale of the difference it would make that makes it hard for me to compute that anyone wouldn't.

        I'm sure you could easily set it up so it wouldn't be used nefariously. A corporation can't just wade in and take a dead body without permission from the person's will or their surviving relatives. I'd leave it in my will that my body should only be used in a certain way by certain people, and I'd kill myself inside the research centre I thought would do the best job of getting it out of me. I might even get an international charity to help me, dispersing the drug to different countries in the most efficient and widely accessible way possible, bypassing governments and companies if necessary.

        I'd definitely talk to the UN and see if some plan could be set up to ease my mind. I have great faith in the scientific community to use my body well. And even if they don't and some big drug company makes a lot of money out of me, it's still a hell of a lot better than having no cure at all.

        If it was real life, and it was between me and another person, I'd just kill myself and be done with it. Whether the cure gets out or not is far more important to me than whether I die or someone else. Besides, if I'm the one who dies my name is going to be immortalized as the guy who cured cancer and that's more than consolation enough for me. They might even let me name it. I'd actually quite like to be the one who dies; I can make sure the cure is used in the right way (the stakes are way too high to trust anyone else with that) and I get to have my memory associated with it when I'm gone. I will be in every history book. I will be in the news world wide. Every person alive in the world will know my name. Children for generations will grow up knowing me as the guy who killed himself so millions could live. Even if you didn't give two shits about human life, that would be enough to convince a lot of people.

        And I'd be the first guy to meet aliens :P

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        • Anime7
          10 years ago

          I actually don't think your name will be immortalized, but maybe the guy who did the autopsy. If I was being known for my actions and I was going to be immortalized then yes I would die as well. But I could easily see myself being forgotten while some guy steals all the credit or hides the cure.

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    • anti-hero
      10 years ago

      Personal preservation and survival is deeply encoded in all animals, including the human animal. I don't put myself above that. I am sorry that you are aghast at my decision, especially since I like you and we normally agree. Survival of the fittest is a cold hard fact of life.

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      • dom180
        10 years ago

        But you can exercise your individualism! :P You have the power to make your own individual moral choices. You don't have to follow what is encoded in you from birth, if it is encoded from birth at all. Perhaps the best way to say it is that I think it's extremely surprising so many people would give their life for one person they love, but wouldn't give their life to save millions of people (some of whom they probably know). Individual preservation clearly isn't that important when so many people would die for someone they loved.

        If it was my life for ten lives, or even a hundred lives, maybe I would do the selfish thing too. But the stakes are too high. In 2012, over 8 million people died of cancer around the world. I can't get my head around how someone could live with themselves knowing that their actions had killed 8 million people every single year. If that figure stays the same and I lived for 60 more years, I would have killed half a billion people in my lifetime - more than the population of the US, the UK, Australia and Germany combined, and almost 50 times the size of the Holocaust. And that's just in my lifetime, because the positive impact of the cure would survive long after my death. An uncountable number of people would have died because I was a selfish man.

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        • anti-hero
          10 years ago

          I respect your stance and you make nothing but valid points. I admit freely that I choose to be a selfish asshole hahaha. Not so much for me but for those close to me that it would hurt. So I guess it is only semi-selfish.

          P.S. I might be the one who is meant to find the cure for cancer in another way. It might be cheaper and easier to use. I can't deny the world that possibility :P

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  • Secgret23
    10 years ago

    I said no because I'm pretty sure if I refused the aliens would have found someone else. There are plenty of other test subjects on this planet.

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  • megadriver
    10 years ago

    Live my life. Even if I die, it won't be for the greater good. It will be for some rich guy that will sell the cure to make more money! I am not going to make money for other people!

    Also I don't want to die to be "immortalized" and have statues. Big deal, I'm dead. I can't feel anything. What good is that, when I'm not there to see it. And in 100 years it will be forgotten, cause a cure for cancer will pop up sooner or later...

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  • college
    10 years ago

    If everyone was aware that I carried this cure, chances are I'd be murdered by one of the millions of people directly or indirectly affected by cancer within or even after the 60 days. However, the self preservation instinct is very strong within me, so I'd probably fight for my life till the very end.

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  • Mister_Nobody
    10 years ago

    Cancer is one of the few forms of population control we haven't managed to 'cure' yet. Doing so would be a heavy blow to us all, since the world is already over-crouded. I'd die to prevent a remedy from being found. Muahahahaha!

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  • dickwashington
    10 years ago

    would if there was some way for them to tell that whats in me would cure cancer but the only way to get it out is to kill me that way for the next 60 days people would let me do what ever i want illegal what ever you get what i mean then on day 59 i would give my life and the cure so yes i would do it but only if people knew zbout first and helped me to live it up for free and get some awesome pussy out of it plus i would want them to build a soild gold statue of me in every city in the world

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  • RoseIsabella
    10 years ago

    To quote the words of the great LL Cool J from his from song Going Back to Cali as featured on his third album Walking with a Panther and the Less Than Zero soundtrack, "NO, I DON'T THINK SO!"

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    • RoseIsabella
      10 years ago

      Oops. I meant to say, "YO, I DON'T THINK SO!"

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  • Couman
    10 years ago

    No way, that's too stupid, I wouldn't even believe it.

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    • Anonymous Post Author
      10 years ago

      Well lets say you had cancer at the time the aliens did this to you and it cured your cancer. There's the proof that it works.

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  • Riddler
    10 years ago

    Society is destroying itself so if I am only going to prolong more madness I don't really see a point. If I am going to give up my life it should be to something that is just going to keep collapsing.

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