Sympathetically Loathsome

Sympathetically loathsome is how the character for Walter White in Breaking Bad is described. If you're not familiar with the series, it's a about a high school chemistry teacher that contracts lung cancer. He fears dying and leaving his family impoverished. He has a disabled teenage son and his forty something wife is pregnant with their second child. To earn some fast cash he goes into business with one of his former students, making methamphetamine, commonly known as meth, and selling it.

He's not mentally weak though. He's extraordinarily tough. A few dead bodies doesn't bother him, even a couple of dead children.There's one memorable scene where he's getting a checkup to see if his cancer has returned and he's talking with a fellow cancer patient in the waiting room:

To hell with your cancer. I’ve been living with cancer for the better part of a year. Right from the start, it’s a death sentence. That’s what they keep telling me. Well, guess what? Every life comes with a death sentence, so every few months I come in here for my regular scan, knowing full well that one of these times - hell, maybe even today - I’m gonna hear some bad news. But until then, who’s in charge? Me. That’s how I live my life. 

If you were confronted with the same choice, what would you do?