[Ready to die at 75?]

Professor Ezekiel J. Emanuel, an expert on bioethics issues, has expressed his intention to refuse treatments that are not merely palliative once he turns 75. The arguments with which he try to justify it are that increasing the length of life does not imply a parallel increase in the quality of life, that the limitations of living from that age also represent a burden for the family who, in addition, are left with the memory of a more deteriorated image of the person and, finally, that defining a moment in which no more treatments are received may be a way to face with lucidity the proximity of death, making it easier to reflect on the meaning of life. This stoic decision, which is presented to us as prudent and altruistic, can also be understood as a utilitarian attitude, since it values the person based on their capabilities, disproportionate to the clinical situation, since it does not consider the prognosis or suitability of possible treatments, and individualistic because it limits the assessment to the subjective perception and anticipated estimate of each one. Even so, the ideas that appear in the text are suggestive and would justify its use as a debate instrument in bioethics teaching programs.