With old age comes diminished health, aches and pains, possible dementia, diminished freedom and the seizure of assets by relatives and the state, fear of eventual homelessness, etc. Death, on the other hand, removes all those problems from concern.

It's not so much old age as reaching the point where I have to rely on others to make my decisions.

At 81 years old, I am in old age. I fear neither.

I have diabetes. My greatest fear is to be living with those complications (blind, in a wheel chair with a loss of my legs, on dialysis) not able to take care of myself and living in a Republican shit hole of a country that won't do anything to help those in need.Death? Meh. We're all gonna die.

I've never feared death I accept it as part of life, on the other hand I fear getting older because my body and mind are not a sharp as they used to be.

I fear the lack of independence that can happen in old age. I fear the chronic pain that can happen in old age due to a terminal disease.I do not fear death because I think it is a natural part of life.

I don't fear either one. Being as they're both inevitable, one can hasten death by worrying too damn much !

And those that get to grow old are fortunate to enjoy a privilege denied to too many.

Old age isn't bad at all. Of course, I'm not even 60 yet...

I fear dying a painful, prolonged death.

Old age.

As they body breaks down, becomes more unreliable and memory fails. life starts to becoming more about daily suffering than actually living life fully.

Neither. I feel an unlived life to be worse than death.

As with most I also fear the suffering that often accompanies old age. A past issue of the Atlantic Monthly had a lot to say on this issue. To me this is typified with the boiling frog syndrome. Things start to get warmer and warmer. It is such a slow process as to be almost imperceptible. Then, one day we realize how far down we have gotten but by them it is too late.

Here on my island we are increasingly having a conversation on how to help people make choices about much they are willing to put up with, how long they want to live and options for dying that minimize suffering for all' loved ones, families and the community as a whole, also suffer in the end even though most of them actually push another to keep hanging on to the very bitter end which will come no matter how one intercedes.

[theatlantic.com]

Like many have alluded to, I am somewhat fearful of dying a painful, prolonged death w/o mobility or mental acuity. I don't think most of us over 50 today will see the day death and/or suffering is permanently eliminated and since we non-theists don't believe in an afterlife we should just accept we're all finite organisms who will be recycled back into the universe since we're all "starstuff" as Carl Sagan first stated.

I don't fear death. I plan to live forever. So far, so good.

I fear old age because I will not be able to do thing that I want to do Death is just step of our life

Old age should not be despaired of as it is a privilege not given to everyone.

I do not fear death but I do fear old age which precedes death.

I do not fear death but I do fear dying. I worry more about living longer without the means to provide a place to live and food to eat. If our Orangutan-in-Chief does half of what he has said he will do, his 1% buddies will be the only ones not homeless and starving.

Neither--death is am illusion, and old age is to be celebrated. I am concerned about being dependent on my children at some point. I am single again so have no one to weather the storms with.

I don't fear either one.

I fear the way I die so a bit of both really I guess

I Don't... and I will get them Both. Nothing to dislike, it is part of the Human Experience... I don't want to be the Ignorant motherfucker in the other side that died Young. Because if you die young... you will die ignorant of the the experience of old age. I am 64 and having a blast much appreciated of Old Age. I don't fear experience because means I had Lived!!!!

Now that I'm old and close to death I don't fear either. It turns out life is pretty much what you've been told.
It flies by
You only have one life don't spend it worrying
Enjoy it
Don't hold grudges
That's their problem not yours
You're lucky quit complaining
Quit spending so much
Yes, all women do "that"

Death is no problemo. It's the PROCESS of dying (old age by default, unless something else intervenes sooner) that's problematic with the open-ended amounts of pain and suffering it can inflict.

I am 61 and my wife is 59; between us, in the past 7 days, we've had the following doctor visits:

• Cardiologist eval due to family history, father had sudden heart attack at about this point
• Urologist for increasingly flaky ability to take a pee
• Dermatologist to treat Rosatia
• Pain doctor to bombard nerves in lower back with radio waves so they quit whining all the time

And we're just getting started. So I fear aging way "more" than death although it's not something that keeps me awake at night (I'm pretty good at not ruminating on things I can't control).

There are a lot of things in life I accept that I don't particularly like. Those are two of them. But I get great deals at IHOP. whoope

Since I am at an older age and have some experience with that, I have some relatable fears. The only concern of death would be if there were pain involved. Understanding logical consequences, why fear death?