Quality of life?
Well, being too lazy to find the original poster, I cannot quote verbatim from this but the gist of the post was that someone here knows a girl of eighteen years old who suffers from a disorder whereby her motor functions are constantly being rewired and the gist of it is that she cannot take for granted that her nervous system will allow her to "remember" how to walk from one day to the next... The condition itself is immaterial, but the illuminating post about the girl's state of mind is very relevant.

The upshot is that after eighteen years, she's given up trying to lead any sort of life and she's wishing she'd never been born. I assume that she retains her full mental faculties, yet is a prisoner in a defective body.

Clearly just being alive isn't enough, no?
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Thu 24 Apr 2008, 10:46, Reply)