So I don't -- to my knowledge -- have a medical condition that may reduce my longevity, but I do have (term) life insurance on both me & my DH (who doesn't work outside the home). Why? Well, I have a lot more (10x) on me than on him for two reasons -- I bring in an income that will vanish if I kick the bucket and I'm much cheaper to insure -- but if something were to happen to either of us, the other would be left without the partner who makes a significant contribution to running our household and raising our elementary schooler. Obviously money won't replace that, but it would help fill some gaps.
I read a lot of posts about life insurance on these boards that basically seem to figure that the day after the poster's death, (or perhaps, for the more sensitive survivors, the day after the funeral), the surviving partner will get out of bed and resume doing whatever the heck they were doing before the poster passed away -- whether that's working, managing a household, raising kids, managing investments and living an affordable lifestyle, or whatever. Honestly, I prefer to imagine that my DH will be totally distraught for a month or more and will manage to rouse himself and put on a good face only because he's responsible for our son and knows that he must. And even then, they'll both be eating a ton of pizza and meals out because, let's be honest, I'm the only thing standing between them and that being their usual approach to getting an, er, satisfying meal. And seriously, our kid will be entirely distraught. And if I'm the survivor, well, all that still applies except for the part about the pizza, and if I do manage to get myself to work, I'll need to hire people to get the stuff that DH does around the house now, done.
And of course if instead of this being about "if something were to happen to either of us" it were instead about something happening to both of us, well, then we want to leave DS well provided for so that his guardians are able to focus on raising him and not paying for raising him. And truthfully, if I end up not being able to parent him into (his) adulthood, I'd like to be able to smooth his life in other ways, for example by paying to cover his college costs even if I wouldn't (otherwise) have done so.
So that's my thinking on the topic. I really don't think the question should be, "Would you recommend life insurance if you have a medical condition that may or may not impact your life longevity?" (though at the margin that must skew the answer more toward "yes," all else equal). Rather, it (they) should be what expenses you want/need to cover for others who depend on you after you are gone (bearing in mind, one hopes, that losing you would be emotionally difficult for them), what resources (e.g. extant savings, social security survivors' benefits) are already available, what insurance to cover any gaps would cost, and whether you can afford it.
And yes -- get term insurance. Conservatively (cautiously) it sounds like in 20 years, no one will be financially dependent on you in a way that necessitates your carrying insurance, so you don't need it forever, just for awhile. And term is much, much cheaper.
