John and Elizabeth Edwards on 60 Minutes

John and Elizabeth Edwards spoke with Katie Couric on 60 Minutes tonight.  Transcript and video are here; watching it, what struck me was the pain mixed with determination on his face and the absolute clarity and grace on hers.  Though I don't want to get too far into amateur mind-reading, I think your mind would have to be stubbornly, unalterably made up to continue seeing this decision as a product of his selfishness after watching this interview - whatever level of ambition is involved in their decision, she is certainly a full partner in it.

John Edwards:
Well, first the decision was made by the two of us, no one else... as it should be. And she said to me, "This is what we believe in. This is what we're spending our lives doing. It's where our heart and soul is. And we can not stop."

The doctor came in. And I said, "I need to know. We have a tough decision to make. We know what we want to do. But I need to know whether Elizabeth can physically do this and I don't mean physically stay at home and watch me do it. I mean, can she physically do it, go out on the campaign trail, do all the work that needs to be done?"

The country's going to want to hear from her, and I knew that. And the doctor said yes she absolutely could physically do it.

Elizabeth Edwards:
You know, you really have two choices here. I mean, either you push forward with the things that you were doing yesterday or you start dying. That seems to be your only two choices. If I had given up everything that my life was about – first of all, I'd let cancer win before it needed to. You know, maybe eventually it will win. But I'd let it win before I needed to.

And I'd just basically start dying. I don't want to do that. I want to live. And I want to do the work that I want next year to look like last year and... and the year after that and the year after that. And the only way to do that is to say I'm going to keep on with my life.