[unbalanced but fair]

Well, I don't subscribe to all the teachings of Epicurus. But I do believe in the concepts of justice and kindness he espoused. And I am a pretty good cook too.

[bvw]

Here are Epi's principles that would seem to apply:

2. Death is nothing to us; for that which has been dissolved into its elements experiences no sensations, and that which has no sensation is nothing to us.

3. The magnitude of pleasure reaches its limit in the removal of all pain. When such pleasure is present, so long as it is uninterrupted, there is no pain either of body or of mind or of both together.

4. Continuous bodily pain does not last long; instead, pain, if extreme, is present a very short time, and even that degree of pain which slightly exceeds bodily pleasure does not last for many days at once. Diseases of long duration allow an excess of bodily pleasure over pain.

5. It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life.

(http://www.epicurus.net/en/principal.html)

Curious. Although I applied the "epicurean" label in the negative sense of a fatalistic pursuit of pleasure -- in Terri's case, Epi's princible of pleasure would have had her kept alive -- for "Diseases of long duration allow an excess of bodily pleasure over pain."

As an epicurean what would you say?