Il n'y a qu'un problème philosophique vraiment sérieux: c'est le suicide.
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest — whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories — comes afterward. These are games; one must first answer.
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (1942).
I remember Ferdinand Marcos, dictator of the Philippines, was being overthrown by People Power, so it was February 1986. This guy Jack V., married to my future mother-in-law, was dying slowly and painfully from lung cancer. As far as the Duke doctors could determine, it must have been from heavy pesticide use in his father's almond business in California (he never smoked anything). Jack was also a little deaf from his service as a captain in the Marines during the Korean War, in the field artillery. I remember him as a tough man, a moderate Republican, a strongly opinionated but sympatico person; and I remember him also as a shrinking man in horrible pain barely able to breathe, 89 pounds. As far as I know -- I coudn't prove it in a court of law -- he was "snowed," or "flooded," with morphine, most likely by his own choice. It is this experience I brought into the excellent new HBO film, Barry Levinson's You Don't Know Jack (2010). On doctor-assisted suicide, I remain neutral, or rather leave things up to the individual, as in abortion and suicide. What do I know?
In any case, Al Pacino, Danny Huston (Fieger Time!), Susan Sarandon, John Goodman and Brenda Veccaro all rock. Thoughtful stuff, bearing witness.
More on "Dr. Death" in Michigan and American culture soon . . .
Today's Rune: Gateway.
4 comments:
I don't know Jack but I did have almost an hour long conversation with him once. He has the right ideas for the right reasons but the way he went about implementing them ratcheted it up to the point where in my opinion he got starstruck by his own notoriety and his ego brought him down.
the obsession with keeping someone alive who is past the point (like the sad case of Terry Schiavo) - and the interference by the religious lunatics is something i just do not understand (or forgive)
I do hope the film is at least fair to the man. I've always wondered why we could put our dog out of it's misery, but not grandma?
Thanks all for the comments!
Nunya, the film was pretty neutral, and so sympatico toward Dr. K by default.
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