•September 16, 2015•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

A few days ago I turned 74. The milestone reminded me of the provocative article a year ago in the Atlantic Monthly by Ezekiel Emanuel (da’ mayor’s brother), who made the case for dying around age 75.

If I adopt Emanuel’s persuasive argument, my time is drawing nigh.

An oncologist and health economics professor, Emanuel observes that after 75 most people trundle down an often sharp decline, even as they live many more years. Creativity in most of us is shot by then, and many are among the walking wounded, either physically or mentally or both.

Emanuel, 58, doesn’t plan to pull the trigger, figuratively or literally, at 75, and he opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia, he says. Instead, he will simply at that point let life take its course, without the medical interventions that are standard, and ever more frequent, in our old age.

No more colonoscopies when he turns 65, for example (I’m having one next week; ugh), and no more prostate exams. At 75, no cancer treatments, should they become pertinent.

While death is a loss, Emanuel says that living too long is also a loss. It profoundly changes who we are, and for the worse.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.