Should we cure illness?

With the world experiencing overpopulation and people on every continent starving from lack of food and essential services, should we in fact all be trying to extend our lifespans even more through medical treatments? Or should we accept that when we get ill, we should die and make room for others on the planet? Is it right to artificially extend our lives beyond what we would have naturally lived at the expense of others?

I think this is more a hypothetical, ethical talking point, rather than really considering letting people die. I sure as heck wouldn’t want to the person that actually made the decision to let all those people die, no matter what might be thought hypothetically.

Overpopulation, starvation and poverty are huge problems in the world today, and the advances in medicine and increased life-spans of people in the West does strike a rather tricky ethical question. Is it really right for richer people in the West to be doing everything they can to extend their life-spans while the rest of the world is dying because too many people are trying to live on too little food? Why should we consider us in the West to be so much more worthy of a longer life than the rest of the world?

In a purely ethical sense, I think it would be fairer if those of us in the West were to accept the fact that we have to die in order to make room for others and stop being so selfish.

One of the arguments for the control of overpopulation is the increase in contraception, but in much of the world having a large family is the only way to protect yourself from starvation, they need to have as many children as possible in order for them to help them on the land and feed the rest of the people.

In a hypothetical sense, I think it is much fairer for people that have had their lives artificially extended or are being kept alive just by medical expertise to lose their lives rather than young, healthy people (if one had to make the choice between them).

I think it is awful that anyone can play God with your life. If people wish to live on and not give in, they should be provided with the relevant medication that will improve their quality of life.

But isn't extending life by healing what would normally have killed you "playing God"? You are artificially altering the lifespan of that person through treating their illness.

Why is dying "giving in"? It happens to all eventually anyway. And the longer than we artificially extend our own lives, the shorter we make life for others, due to a finite amount of resources in the world. Is it really right to sentence someone else, who is healthy without help, to an earlier death just so that someone who is ill may have a little longer of life?