Thirty. One.

Cancer is a scary thing to deal with. Not just for the person, but the people surrounding that person. For some reason, I never thought about the hardships faced romantically by the people on either side. Think about it. A person with cancer knows their disease could get better. But could also get worse to a point beyond repair. And yet, they still want what we all ultimately want: love. And they probably want it more than most, because they may not have alot of time left on this earth. However, there are major hardships that may prevent them from obtaining that. The first being that people may look at them and feel sorry for them. Or pity. Ultimately, I feel that sympathy, in any situation, is utterly useless. I mean what, "I'm sorry you have a tumor in your chest and that you may die from it? Wish there was something I could do?" What they hell is that doing for anyone?

The other problems actually are a joint hardship between the sick individual and whoever he/she is pursuing a relationship with. And they all revolve outside of the two individuals. Namely, the other individual's family. The family may think the person with cancer is looking for a crutch. That is someone they can, in a nutshell, dump their shit on. They feel the sick person is looking for someone to take care of them. The other problem is that they don't want to see their loved one to get hurt.
Which is understandable. However, seeing as nobody is psychic, we can't truly forsee what the future holds for the two individuals. And we don't know what will happen to the person suffering from cancer.

My point?

Dating someone with cancer, or any terminal illness for that matter is a challenge. But there are plenty of worse off situations in which neither party may be suffering from disease, but can cause one or both people harm. Abusive relationships, homosexual relationships, polyamorous relationships, etc.

Should we alienate someone suffering from a terminal illness just to protect our own well-being? And where do we draw the line that divides the acceptable from the unacceptable? Especially when every illness has the potential of growing life threatening. If I'm dating a girl and she catches swine flu or pneumonia, do I cut her off?