Would you/we want to know?

[zapatos]

Regardless of the stated reason for the doctor visit, a doctor is expected to tell a person about an illness. That doctor may not know how to heal the person or keep them alive, but that doesn't mean there is no doctor anywhere who can help.

 

I've heard of cardiac cases whose first doctor told them they would die within months, but another doctor healed the person. No doctor is omniscient, and must consider the possibility that another doctor can help. For a doctor to withhold such information is unethical.

 

In the words of my friend StringJunky, I don't think you are answering in the spirit of the question. The assumption - by whatever means as a consequence of this comet illness - is that everything is destroyed you die.

[EdEarl]

 

In the words of my friend StringJunky, I don't think you are answering in the spirit of the question. The assumption - by whatever means as a consequence of this comet illness - is that everything is destroyed you die.

I answered the question in the spirit,

 

If the comet couldn't be seen, was dark colored rubble instead of ice, then it would probably be best to not tell people; I'd prefer not to know and hope to die in my sleep.

Doctors take an oath that no one else does; thus, your doctor scenario is not the same as astronomers and government deciding whether to tell people it's all over. However, I doubt that any end-of-Earth scenario could be kept a secret. Although, a gamma ray burst is less likely than other scenarios to leak out.

[zapatos]

I answered the question in the spirit,

 

 

I don't see how, given that you introduced the possibility of the patient living, just as you introduced the possibility of people surviving the planet killing comet. I get the feeling we are using different premises in our arguments, which means we are simply arguing past each other.

[EdEarl]

I have no answer for your hypothetical.

[Sensei]

Fried rather than pulverised.

Gamma photon with enough energy can "destroy" nucleus.

f.e. Deuterium needs 2.22 MeV energy to be split to free proton and free neutron.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-energy_cosmic_ray

They have enough energy to destroy 450 billions of Deuterium atoms.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Sensei