In a piece for The Atlantic, Ezekiel Emanuel wrote in 2014 that 75 is a "pretty good age to aim to stop."
www.newsweek.com
A doctor whom President-elect
Joe Biden has appointed to advise about the coronavirus is facing criticism for an article he wrote six years ago in which he argued that
he had no aspiration to live beyond the age of 75.
The essay by Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist who is one of the 10 advisory board members that Biden appointed to his coronavirus task force this week, outlined how he believed
by that age "creativity, originality and productivity are pretty much gone for the vast, vast majority of us."
"Living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived," he wrote in the piece for the October 2014 edition of
The Atlantic headlined, "Why I Hope to Die at 75."
He said that Americans were obsessed with health remedies in a "valiant effort to cheat death and prolong life as long as possible," and that "I reject this aspiration. I think this manic desperation to endlessly extend life is misguided and potentially destructive.
"For many reasons,
75 is a pretty good age to aim to stop," said Emmanuel, who is 63. He wrote he would reject medical treatments like flu shots, and that
"if there were to be a flu pandemic, a younger person who has yet to live a complete life ought to get the vaccine or any antiviral drugs."
Emanuel made it clear in the piece that he he opposed physician-assisted suicide, and did not want to reach 75 and then simply die.
Many took to social media to highlight the awkward questions Emmanuel has raised, given that he will play a role in protecting the elderly from COVID-19,
not to mention that Biden himself is 77.
