Disclaimer: One of the best pieces of advice I’ve been given about this blog is to “focus on the Actionable Items.”  Or in other words, picture the person who reads what you say and agrees completely.  Then ask yourself “What do I want this person to come away with?  Since getting that advice I've tried to follow it but sometimes I screw up.  This is one of those times and this post is an attempt to correct that...

People should not be used as a means to an end.  Speculating on someone else's imminent death to create a topic of discussion uses that person's life as a means to an end (the end being the entertainment value of that discussion). 

So my point is this: Before saying something about anyone, particularly about their health, you should ask yourself why you're doing it.  The people in that Hacker News thread are getting an emotional high off Steve Jobs' suffering and that's nothing short of reprehensible.

(For the record, this post is essentially lifted from the thinking of Immanuel Kant.  If you don't know him you should look him up)