I have a reggae group on my blog called Black Uhuru who sing an anthem called ‘What is Life.’
What is life? I try to see
What is life? It’s unity
What is life? I try to feel
What is life? It’s really real
The term ‘life and death’ issues has almost become trite as a description because it’s tagged to issues that are not about life and death. But I think most will agree that abortion, end-of-life medical care and capital punishment are pretty solid life-death issues.
I’m not exploring all that here but I am leading up to a story by a guest writer to AL.com that is another example of why there are not black-and-white answers to all the questions about these topics.
The story excerpted and linked below is about a man, burned badly over 65 percent of his body. He wanted to die.
His case is now a case study in bioethics classes at UAB. Many thanks to Gregory Pence for sharing this remarkable and well-written piece, which opens like this:
Famous patient in bioethics, Donald (Dax”) Cowart, recently died. A high school football player from Henderson, Texas, he served as a pilot in Vietnam, after which he joined his father in real estate in Henderson.
On June 23, 1973, the two of them, while inspecting a ranch for sale, suffered severe burns from an undetected gas leak, burning over 65% of Dax’s body and killing his father.
Dax had learned about burns from his pilot’s training. Found by a farmer, Dax asked for a gun to kill himself.
Read the rest by clicking here.
It’s an issue I want to explore further at another time because those of us with dementia may face instances of chronic pain and lowered quality of living.
Pence’s column really leaves you wondering. I’m still not sure what the takeaway is in this column and that’s what makes it so provocative. It’s not a same-size-fits-all lesson here.
That’s all for now. Check out my column tomorrow on AL.com: It’s about MyVinyCountdown.com reaching the half-way point.
And, importantly, let’s remember our veterans who have died.
1:18 p.m. Update:
Another story has come through that is related to this topic: Conservative Christian anti-abortion mother of two children with special medical needs sees the nuance and strongly opposes the new law banning abortions. Story here.