All out for 75

Thursday, May 25th, 2023

What if our health or happiness does not determine the age at which we die, but by those who deem us surplus to requirements and a burden on the state?

In US author Lionel Shriver’s well-reviewed novel, Should We Stay Or Should We Go, a middle-aged married couple makes a pact to end their own lives when they turn 80.

A nurse and a GP in the British National Health Service, Kay and Cyril Wilkinson have seen countless patients worn down by physical and mental decay.

They are determined to avoid the same fate.

Reluctant to burden the state or their kids, they make a pact: when Kate turns 80, they will jointly take their own lives.

At 50, that still seems a long way off.

But when Kate blows out her candles on her 80th birthday cake, things don’t seem so clear cut.

The pair are still physically and mentally alert and living active lives.

What might they miss out on if they snuff it?

The novel cleverly devises options, including being sectioned by their children, experimenting with cryogenics, and living in a fancy rest home.

Most of us, from time to time, consider how life will pan out in old age.

The death of a parent can prompt speculation about our own demise.

Will we live to the same age?

Will we face the same impairments: loss of hearing, sight, mobility, or mind?

Mostly it’s not maudlin, just curiosity. And we are heartened by science and statistics.

There are cures for many of the conditions that struck down our parents and new drugs to mitigate or stave off the extreme effects of other ailments. New Zealand now has the fourth-longest life expectancy in the world after Monaco, Japan and Australia.

As a Pākehā New Zealand woman, I can expect to live to 84.57 years.

My husband, at 80, is nearing the national average for Pākehā men.

Statistics for Māori and Pasifika, of course, are nowhere near as rosy.

While life expectancy is increasing for both populations, the gap persists.

Māori men’s life expectancy at birth is 73.4 years, Māori women 77.1; Pasifika men can expect to live to 75.4, Pasifika women 79.

But here’s a thought: what if our health or happiness does not determine the age at which we die, but by those who deem us surplus to requirements and a burden on the state?

Unthinkable? Read on.