Death Calculator

If you had the option to know when you are going to die and how you are going to die, would you choose to know or choose not to know? And if you choose to know, how would it change your life? What are the pros and cons of knowing?

Current Events (December)

*new* 4Dec12  Frontline on Suicide
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/suicide-plan/

3Dec12  Coffin Tours (?!)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20571517#

NYTimes: Aiding the Doctor Who Feels Cancer's Toll
Doctors who care for the terminally ill may find themselves sharing their patients' pain and facing burnout from the stresses of their jobs.  http://nyti.ms/TflH9F

Philosophy in the world

What experiences in your life are hard to reconcile with our course material?  (Be specific in identifying the material).  Why is it hard?  What else could you do to square your thinking/philosophizing and your lived experience?

More Philosophy?  Would you take an additional philosophy course if money/time weren’t factors?  Explain.

Your Obituary

Review the Preface and pp. 6-13 of Barry and The Death of Ivan Illyich.  What is the meaning of life?  What are you not realizing about life?  How might an examination of life inform your living?  Answer this question, in part, by thinking about your own obituary.  What do you need to do now in order to have that obituary?  Feel free to reference Barry, Stevenson & Tolstoy in your response.

Does Death Give Life Meaning?

What do you think after our course?

Death of Ivan Ilych - extra credit

If you want extra credit, you must answer all of these questions and send your response to me via email.  Otherwise, just answer a few questions, whatever strikes your interest, for regular blog credit.

1. A brief 1 or 2 paragraph summary.

2. Write a 1 or 2 paragraph overall reaction to the story.

3. Comment on the following passages:

* p. 38 death as a third person, the screens

* p. 42 propriety, how people behave (then, now, etc.)

* p. 43 wanting to be cuddled, touched, treated as human

* p. 45-7 lies, not talking directly about the dying except to the servant, Gerasim (more on p. 50)

* p. 50-2 pain, abandonment, life review, the failure of propriety

How Ought We to Live? Can We Hope?

This is specifically referencing the Conclusions to your Stevenson and Barry texts, but you aren't limited to that text in building your answer.

Truth

Are there absolute truth(s)?  About what?  How do you know?

Which Theory of Human Nature is Most Persuasive?

Which of the theories of human nature in the Stevenson book do you find most persuasive and why?  Use specific examples.  You don’t have to commit to just one theory, you can pick and choose from various theories.  

This should be a lively threaded discussion. . .

Who is the patient?

Is a patient just the individual or the individual in a community/family?  Who should have decision-making powers, especially in end-of-life situations?

Futile Treatment

What is the definition of futile treatment?  Should it be offered?  Should it be given if a patient requests it?

The Diving Bell & the Butterfly

HIV, AIDS, World AIDS Day 3 Dec 12

NYTimes: New H.I.V. Cases Falling in Some Poor Nations, but Treatment Still Lags
A U.N. report showed that 2.5 million people became infected last year, while only 1.4 million received lifesaving treatment for the first time.
http://nyti.ms/WvcC2j

Technology Improvements Undermining Efforts to Reduce Spread of HIV
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/world/asia/indian-prostitutes-new-autonomy-imperils-aids-fight.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121125

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/hiv-infections-fall-un-says-ending-aids-feasible/

Hurricane Sandy

from Peter
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/us/tropical-weather-sandy/index.html
that just happened last Monday. I am posting this because I can relate this to our recent discussion on advanced directives. It is obvious that anybody can die at any time, especially in the case of a severe natural disaster. This is a very good reason to have an advanced directive as soon as possible.

 

Advance Directives (your Thanksgiving treat)

Why planning is important:
http://m.aljazeera.com/story/2012111382019297736

KY Advance Directive
http://www.caringinfo.org/files/public/ad/Kentucky.pdf (very readable; from National Hospice & Palliative Care Org.)
http://www.kyjustice.org/node/584 (lots of explanation)
http://www.lrc.ky.gov/krs/311-00/625.PDF (the legal statute & document)

OH Advance Directive
http://www.caringinfo.org/files/public/ad/Ohio.pdf (from National Hospice & Palliative Care Org.)
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/patients-visitors/legal-ethical-decisions/personal-medical-decisions/advance-directives.aspx (packet of info from the Cleveland Clinic)
http://www.ohiolegalservices.org/public/legal_problem/wills-and-probate/advanced-directives/qandact_view (Ohio Legal Services)

Power, Responsibility, & Moral Failings

*new* Story about close collaboration and how that can lead situations to go "sideways"
http://chronicle.com/article/Affairs-of-HeartMind/136085/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

So, what do you make of the Petraeus scandal?  An isolated case?  (see second & third stories below).   A reminder that even the best people can make mistakes?  Are these stories indicative of human moral frailty, modern corruption, particular people's stories, unfortunate series of events, or ???  Can someone fail in one area of life (personal relationships) yet be successful in another (work, career)?  Does having an affair mean that the offending party doesn't love the spouse?  What does it mean to have an affair?  (I know!  too many questions . . . just answer the ones that strike you).

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/us/top-us-commander-in-afghanistan-is-linked-to-petraeus-scandal.html?nl=todaysheadlines&adxnnl=1&emc=edit_th_20121113&adxnnlx=1352836831-ddYAalkJWWJguYcY+wNbww

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/us/petraeuss-resignation-highlights-concern-over-military-officers-ethics.html?ref=us

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/13/petraeus_the_ongoing_saga/?source=newsletter

I'll say:
It makes me sad for the spouses who have been caught up in the scandal.  It is *so* public.  I think people try hard and often fail.  I don't think it necessarily means that the parties involved in both scandals don't love their spouses, or are necessarily bad people, but holy cow would it be hard to deal with those betrayals on a national stage.  Good luck to all of them!

Polish immigrant murders two children in brutal fashion.

http://www.examiner.com/article/illinois-babysitter-accused-of-killing-two-children-gives-police-mixed-stories

Meaningful Music, Films, Books

Dear All,
What music, films, books do you find philosophically meaningful with respect to our course?  Generally about human nature and/or specifically about death & dying?  I'll start with a few favorites:

The Cold Missouri Waters (about a horrible 1949 forest fire which killed a bunch of firefighters; told from the point of view of the sole survivor)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgQNeGPJdcQ

Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
A classic folk song with many, many versions.  Here's an old one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLFbUbmH7To

Current Events (November)

*new* 28Nov12 Pregnant Woman Allowed to Die in Ireland
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/15/world/europe/hospital-death-in-ireland-renews-fight-over-abortion.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1354132871-LT89WStiE+uN5uBs6rQazQ

25Nov12 End of Life Care
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/opinion/sunday/end-of-life-health-care.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121125

NYTimes: Managing the Assisted Living vs. Hospice Dilemma
When hospice services are brought into assistant living facilities for older residents with terminal illnesses, problems can arise. Here are tips for making sure there is good communication between families, hospice staff, assisted living staff and paid caregivers.
http://nyti.ms/S986la

NYTimes: When Treating Cancer Is Not an Option
Aggressive chemotherapy when death is but weeks or months away can seriously compromise the quality of patients' remaining time and may delay their preparations for the end of life.
http://nyti.ms/WfP38V

14 Nov 12 Brain Imagining Allows Communication with Vegetative Man
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/33264/title/An--Unconscious--Man-Talks/

12Nov12  Self-Immolations Protesting Re: Tibet
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/world/asia/educated-chinese-are-silent-amid-tibetan-self-immolations.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121110 

5Nov12 Suicide Increase During Recession
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/health/us-suicide-rate-rose-during-recession-study-finds.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121105 


I just wanted to start a new post for current events in November!

My mom called me the other day and told me about a very tragic event that happened in Carroll County, Kentucky. There was a bus wreck and two preschoolers died. Three others were in ICU. My mom works in Transportation and Student Services at the school district that I attended, so for her, this story really hit home. I think this story is hard for anyone that has a heart to hear. I feel like in class, we often talk about death in the perspective of adults. Of course, we are adults, so it is hard to think about death from a child's perspective. I just wonder what kind of impact this event will have on the surviving children and how it will change their thoughts on death.

So, anyway, I will post the link to the story if anyone wants to read it.

http://www.wlky.com/news/local-news/kentucky-news/2-children-killed-in-Carroll-County-Head-Start-bus-crash/-/9718420/17183174/-/r15ta/-/index.html

Suicide

*new* Suicide Rates Increase During Recession
 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/health/us-suicide-rate-rose-during-recession-study-finds.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121105

What is it?  How should we define it?

Is it wrong?  Why?  Permissible?  When, if ever?

Examples of clear-cut, wrong self-killing?  Of unclear, gray areas?  Of permissible, admirable, not-wrong self-killing?

Why do we tend to feel that suicide is immoral?

Why focus on the afterlife?

So, what would change in your lives if you just gave up thinking about the afterlife?  You just didn't worry about it:  whether there is one, what we'd look like, whether we'd have bodies or not, whether Hitler and serial murders would show up in heaven with us, or whether we all just become one with the universe.

What's at stake here?  I'd say that our beliefs inform our burial practices, but let's set that aside for now.  What, if anything, would change in your daily lives?  How you live your lives?

Friendship, Family, Thanksgiving

*new* Friends, Facebook, social media:  is that real friendship?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swTLjLIn1jM
An ad for a debate (trying to find the link. . . )

Why is family important?  Why (are?) friends important?  What does Aristotle say?  What do you say?

For what are you grateful?  Are you most thankful for the things/people/events that are most meaningful to you?  Or can you be very grateful for things that really aren't meaningful?  Explain.

The Ancient Philosophers

What do you like of Plato and/or Aristotle?  What surprised you?  What rings true for you, even today, 2300 years later?

What do you dislike?  Not understand?  What confuses you?

Mental illness, age of reasoning, insanity defense

Someone posted a story about a young girl who killed a baby.  If that girl was mentally ill, shouldn't she be helped rather than prosecuted?

How old is old enough to "know better"?

Can a person learn from her mistakes?  Even very serious mistakes?  Can a person be "redeemed"?

Medicine, Medical Professionals, PAS, autonomy

A series of related questions (you don't have to answer all -- just pick 1-2)
* What is the role of physician?  Healer, comforter?  Does that include relief of suffering?  To what degree?  Could PAS be included?  Could palliative sedation (sedation to control pain or symptoms which might, but doesn't necessarily intend to stop life)?

* Might having PAS as a possible option bring comfort to people?  Explain.

* What is autonomy?  What's the value of autonomy?  How is autonomy related to dignity?  Is it important to protect dignity?

* Is there value in suffering?

Hurricane Sandy

There's lots to discuss regarding the storm and aftermath.  Here's a start:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/nyregion/hurricane-sandys-lethal-power-in-many-ways.html?hp&_r=0

Ask a Mortician

A story about a blog on death. . .
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/27/americas_next_top_mortician_it_really_improves_your_life_to_be_around_corpses/?source=newsletter

Here's a link to the videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/OrderoftheGoodDeath

Watch a few and report back.

Re: new posts

All,
I love that you are posting things are your own, but the blog is getting disorderly.  Please put your posts in current events or something general, rather than every new story in its own thread.

Thanks,
Dr. Cate

Costume Conscience

With Halloween just around the corner, many kids (and adults) will be dressing up in costumes to celebrate the season. Little kids may even bear the image of their favorite halloween monsters or murderers, but is it really ok for them to glorify these horrific figures even if it's just for fun? Halloween as a holiday embraces death, but is that really ok?

Massachusetts’ Assisted Suicide Proposal: Concerns on Question 2

by Jacqueline Harvey, Ph.D. | Boston, MA | LifeNews.com | 10/24/12 1:47 PM

The 2012 “Act Relative to Death with Dignity” goes before Massachusetts voters on November 6. Question 2 asks voters directly whether to legalize physician-assisted suicide (PAS) or uphold existing state statutes. If voters affirm Question 2, Massachusetts would join Oregon, Washington and Montana as the only states in the U.S. to allow this practice. Recent studies on PAS in these states paint a revealing portrait of what would transpire in Massachusetts if voters approve Question 2. However, unlike citizens of Oregon who passed the first “Death with Dignity Act” in 1997, voters in Massachusetts have the benefit of learning the actual outcomes of such legislation in other states. Voters now have access to numerous studies that both vindicate opponents’ predictions about PAS and present even more concerns.
Concern 1: Denial of Palliative Care Coverage
Oregon and Washington impose reporting requirements for PAS, and while there are only three years of data from Washington (Washington’s “Death with Dignity” Act took effect in 2009), objective studies done in both states support many of the fears listed by opponents of Massachusetts’ “Death with Dignity” Initiative. Opponents predicted in 1997 that states that legalize PAS may coax and coerce unwilling patients toward ending their lives by limiting or denying palliative care. While PAS proponents have since cited increased spending on palliative care as evidence that opponents were incorrect, other reports confirm opponents’ fears, particularly incidents where terminally ill citizens were told by state medical plan authorities that they would not pay the cost of pain-control, but would cover the cost of their suicides. Another study indicated that 24 percent of patients who chose PAS reported that they did not have adequate finances to cover expenditures for medical care and equipment, in spite of the fact that 98 percent of respondents had health insurance. Fears that PAS may not be freely chosen by patients but instead represent a last act of desperation are supported by this evidence.
Concern 2: Inheritance and Other Financial Incentives
PAS proponents attempt to refute opponents’ claim that PAS would disproportionately target the vulnerable, citing the fact that people who have taken their own lives are better educated and more financially stable than the general population. Opponents reply that this highlights another grave concern, financial abuse of the elderly, suggesting that those patients who have a significant estate may feel compelled to die in order to leave their property to their heirs. A recent study of patients receiving PAS in Oregon and Washington demonstrates that PAS may not be used to benefit the patient, but the patient’s family. One study employed a “Quality of Death and Dying Questionnaire” that examined patient pain and other symptoms as well as readiness for death, anxiety and mood[1]. The study indicated that patients choosing PAS did not report a higher quality of death than those dying naturally, but rather that the patient’s family members did indicate a higher quality of death on some items. Additional research also found that caregivers of patients in both Oregon and Washington who ended their lives by PAS were themselves suffering from substantial financial and health-related harms: 37 percent had lost income because of caregiving (18 percent had had to quit their paying jobs), 12 percent had become ill themselves while caregiving, 29 percent had delayed plans for themselves or their families, 23 percent stated that their social lives suffered frequently, 20 percent complained that they often did not have enough time for themselves, 33 percent frequently felt stressed because of caregiving, and 24 percent were clinically depressed. Although respondents claim that none of these factors was associated with the decision to end the patient’s life, Washington State reported in 2011 that over half of respondents choosing PAS mentioned “concerns about being a burden” as a reason for choosing to take their own lives. This evidence overwhelmingly suggests that opponents’ fears of patient coercion are well-founded and that patients may not choose PAS in their best interest, but rather in the perceived best interest of others – many of whom stand to gain from a patient’s earlier demise.
Concern 3: Adverse Impact on the Disabled
Additionally, an exhaustive analysis of 11 years of reports on Oregon’s statute failed to quiet the ongoing outcry regarding the possibility that PAS unduly targets persons with disabilities. This panel of scholars examined all available literature on Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and ultimately determined that physicians may bias their assessments of the quality or worthiness of life with a disability and influence the recommendation regarding life-sustaining treatment options. The authors agree with many opponents of PAS who note the potential for abuse due to the lack of oversight of or penalties for rogue physicians who choose not to report assisted suicides to the proper authorities.

Concern 4: Mistaken Diagnoses and Life Expectancy
Along with a lack of oversight and accountability for physicians, a review of studies also determined that physicians’ medical diagnoses were often incorrect, both in declaring a patient to have a terminal condition and estimating their life expectancy at six months or fewer. A prognosis of only six months equals 180 days maximum, and yet Oregon’s report indicates the number of days between writing the lethal prescription and the patient’s actual death ranged from zero to 698 days (nearly two years). Another study of physicians who were willing to prescribe the lethal dose found that 27 percent were not confident that they could determine if a patient only had six months or fewer to live. One report discusses a PAS opponent from Oregon who was told that she had only six months to one year to live; today, over 11 years later, she is still alive. Additionally, since many people survive in spite of terminal prognosis, and since the median number of days between the writing of a lethal prescription and the patient’s death is seven, it is unknown how many of these patients would have actually died within the six-month timeframe or anything close to it. There is also the report that many patients opting to end their lives suffer from treatable depression and physicians report that patients for whom interventions were made (like treating depression) were more likely to change their minds about wanting to end their lives. One analyst, after examining Oregon’s most recent annual report, found that physicians who prescribe the lethal medications are failing to refer for necessary psychiatric evaluations of patients, many of whom might reconsider suicide if properly treated. This prompts the question of how many people freely choose PAS or are pressured into the decision by negative circumstances, especially circumstances for which there is some or complete relief.
Concern 5: Medico-Professional Opposition to PAS
Despite media portrayals of opposition to PAS as based primarily on moral or religious grounds, data reaffirms that the most enduring opponents of PAS are physicians. The American Medical Association has not wavered in its opposition to PAS and states, “Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.” The medical community’s staunch opposition to PAS is regarded as a major reason why no state legislature has legalized PAS despite more than 120 attempts, as overwhelming expert testimony against this practice has succeeded in persuading legislators across party lines of its demonstrated dangers. Legislative attempts failed in Montana in 2009, where PAS was only legalized by court decree. Indeed, ballot initiatives were approved in Oregon (1994) and Washington (2008), following years of failed legislative attempts. Likewise, proposed bills failed in the Massachusetts legislature in 1995, 1997, 2009 and, most recently, 2011 and 2012. Having failed to convince legislators, PAS proponents in Massachusetts hope to legalize PAS by appealing to a populace that is largely unfamiliar with the consequences in states with this deadly law on the other side of the nation. There is overwhelming scientific evidence and human experience validating the dangers of PAS, and Massachusetts voters have a responsibility to access as much of this critical information as possible before they go the polls. This includes knowledge of the text of the proposed statute which, like Oregon and Washington’s, opponents note fails to impose oversight of physicians in order to prevent abuses.
Conclusion
PAS has never been legalized when subjected to the legal and scientific scrutiny of a legislature with the ability to examine years of research that has established the damage these statutes have caused. Moreover, no studies have been completed that suggest any benefits of PAS, let alone benefits that would justify coaxing or coercing vulnerable patients to kill themselves for the benefit of others, taking the lives of those without terminal illnesses, and killing people who may have years left to live. No research exists to demonstrate that patients are benefitted by PAS. Rather, studies to date have uncovered additional negative consequences beyond those most routinely cited in opposition to this practice. Massachusetts voters should make every effort to obtain the evidence and weigh it for themselves as they go to the polls and render their judgment on Question 2 this November 6.
*See also previous CLI blog on Oregon’s 2012 Annual PAS Report.

LifeNews Note: Jacqueline Harvey, Ph.D.is a bioethicist and public policy scholar whose research primarily focuses on end-of-life legislation, particularly state policies that allow the forced removal of life-sustaining medical treatment against patient wishes. Her training includes a Ph.D. in Public Administration and an M.S. in Social Work. Dr. Harvey currently works in Texas as a policy analyst and independent evaluator, analyzing the effectiveness of government social welfare grants and human service programs for non-profit organizations.

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[1] Smith, KA, Goy, ER, Havath, TA, Ganzini, L. Quality of death and dying in patients who request physician-assisted death. Journal of Palliative Medicine. 14,4. 2011.

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/10/24/massachusetts-assisted-suicide-proposal-concerns-on-question-2/

Flaws in restraining order against domestic spouses particularly men

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3617134.html

This video is about the murder of a 23 yeard old woman Sargun Raji, who was a victim of domestic violence. It shows the flaws in the restraining order system in which many of the violent spouses are easily able to outmaneuver and still harm the other spouse. As a result Sargun Raji was found with many stab wounds and was sexually assaulted numerous times.

11 Year Old Girl Accused of Murder

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/2012/10/22/year-old-accused-maine-baby-death-arraigned/3cyncZaO28X68eAf45sHHO/story.html

I came across this article today while on the internet and thought it was crazy that an eleven year old girl could do such a thing. I am in the Mental Health rotation for clinicals right now and to think that her behavior disorder has been overlooked for this amount of time is outrageous. How do my classmates feel about this? Should she be incarcerated until age 21?

Consciousness After Death

While writing my paper this past week I casually was talking to my mother about the topic of soul and after life.  She told me about a brain surgeon who woke up from coma and how he now believed in scientific evidence that there is consciousness after death.... here is some detail.... 

 

 

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Afterlife exists says top brain surgeon

Afterlife exists says top brain surgeon
"Dr Eben Alexander, a Harvard-educated neurosurgeon, fell into a coma for seven days in 2008 after contracting meningitis. During his illness Dr Alexander says that the part of his brain which controls human thought and emotion "shut down" and that he then experienced "something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death." In an essay for American magazine Newsweek, which he wrote to promote his book Proof of Heaven, Dr Alexander says he was met by a beautiful blue-eyed woman in a "place of clouds, big fluffy pink-white ones" and "shimmering beings."

Why does it make the news when some British brain dead doctor wakes up and says he saw heaven but when Jesus, in front of witnesses, died and rose again, in front of witnesses, the world yawns? Just think about that for a minute.

I am sad for the doctor. And he wrote a whole book called "Proof of Heaven" ??!! Jesus wrote a whole book - the bible - which is proof of heaven.

The man's medically induced, hospital-drug involved experience in no way proves heaven. He experienced something. It wasn't heaven. The man's brain was swelled up, neurologically destroyed for a period, and drugs were keeping him alive. Anything could be happening in his brain at that moment! His experience is proof of nothing.

If you notice all the people who say they have been brought to heaven, their visions do not line up with what the bible says. The doctor saw cotton-candy clouds, and women angels (not biblical) but NOT Jesus? If he is saved, the man would be with Jesus. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8a). If he was not saved, he would not be in heaven.

What did Ezekiel see? God (Ezek. 1:26)
What did Daniel see? God (Dan. 7:9)
What did Isaiah see? God ((Isa. 6:1)
What did Jacob see? God (Gen. 28:12, 13)
What did Stephen see? Jesus (Acts 7:55)
What did John see? God (Rev. 4:2)
What did Micaiah see? God. (2 Chron. 18:18)
What did Paul see? He wasn't allowed to say!

Not only do these trips to heaven not line up with the bible, they do not line up with each other. No one, like Colton Burpo or Don Piper or this doctor etc., saw the same things as each other. They each saw different things.

Now satan, who is a liar and the father if lies, wants to delude someone, wouldn't you think he could give an unsaved person a vision and delude them into thinking they saw heaven and are headed there? That they are all set and do not need Jesus for salvation? Which is more likely: Jesus giving tours of heaven which differ from each other, or satan, father of lies deluding people into thinking they are saved by giving them a false vision?

Here is a good 15-min video of a discernment minister named Justin Peters explaining why these 'visits to the afterlife' and visions of heaven are false.

What are your prospectives? I know myself personally got to experience the after effect of someone waking up after visiting "heaven" this past summer with my grandma. I posted in an early blog a youtube video that was made by my cousin a reporter.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvSuPrBEtP8

Though this was interesting about the ambassador's death

Hillary Clinton takes blame for US deaths in Libya
http://world.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201210/95576.php

Seven Psychopaths

So, I just saw this movie tonight that I think is moderately pertinent to class. It is called Seven Psychopaths. The plot can be found at the following link:
IMDB: Seven Psychopaths
I won't ruin the plot and finale for anyone planning on seeing it but just know that it deals with a large amount of death. It really got me thinking about how others view death. Through the class and discussions, I was always aware of what others thought about death and the dying process but never put much deep contemplation to it. It took a bizarre group of psychopathic characters to accomplish this level of deeper thought. The film was beyond anything I could have imagined - I went into the theatre expecting to get a decent amount of laughs and maybe learn a lesson. Little did I know, it would have  very different affect on me.
Through the film, the characters face different kinds of death - theoretical and real, gruesome and... well no, I don't recall any of them being peaceful. The audience is then in turn introduced to each character's interpretation and reaction to the death. It astounded me how some of them viewed certain deaths with disgust or horror while others viewed them as victories. In extension of this, each character had a different "readiness" for his or her own death that may or may not be eminent. The audience, in turn, has to reflect on what death means to them, their positions on death, and how others' positions on death affect them. It was, in summation, completely bizarre but allowed a strange level of deep thought of the public and death.
After a good deal of reflection on this film, another film comes to mind. The film 50/50 deals with a man's confrontation with his dying process after he finds out that he has a rare form of cancer of the spine. This movie was bizarre as well in that it had the audience laughing hysterically one minute and crying their eyes out the next. It had a very deep meaning and left the audience (well, at least me) with a lot to contemplate. It represented a lot of what we have studied in class (the whole dying in the hospital motif) and gave a real life application for the discussion he have had.
I believe that while our modern society has a problem with facing that our deaths might be very eminent  and our serious lack of planning for when that day may come, the media does a good job of representing to us how mortal we are and that death and dying is something worth contemplating about.

Digital Legacies

What do you think about memorializing people on Facebook, Twitter, etc.  (See related post in Current Events about W&J student-athlete Tim McNerney's murder last week).

Death: digital scrapbooks
1. www.123456789.net,
2.www.forevernetwork.com
3. www.memorymountain.com

Horton Hears the Sound of Silence

If Charles can do it, I can do it to.

I come across this interesting bit of information. I wished I learned this at the beginning of the year when we were debating the consciousness of animals in relation to death.

But it has been discovered and documented that elephants have funerals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_cognition#Death_ritual

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cnb7Gix218

Elephants will inspect the corpses for dead elephants even if they are not in the same herd. Some will inspect the bones cautiously touching it with their trunks. Other elephants will just respectively have a few moments of silence while gazing at their fallen brother.

What do you think this implies about elephants thinking of death? Does this imply that they are conscious of their own demise? Are we misinterpreting them? What sort of behavior would an animal have to exhibit that would prove they are conscious of their own death?

Current Events (Oct)

*new* 31Oct12
Article on cold case murder of little girl by a former cop
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/national_world&id=8810883
This article is about a 57 year old man was found guilty on september 14 of murdering a seven year old girl back in 1957. I think that it is scary that this little girl has been dead for over fifty years and the culprit is just now being convicted. To make it worse this man used to be a cop.

*new* 31Oct12
sort of the opposite of dying -- much more on the living side:
Unraveling the mystery of why the inhabitants of Ikaria, an island of 99 square miles that is home to almost 10,000 Greek nationals, live so long and so well. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-where-people-forget-to-die.html

29Oct12 Scared to Death?
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=163712863&m=163712852

26Oct12 NY Nany kills 2 children
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/nyregion/fatal-stabbings-on-upper-west-side-nanny-is-arrested.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121026 

24Oct12
What We Say About Our Religion, And What We Do
by Shankar Vedantam
NPR - October 24, 2012
A recent Pew survey found that an unprecedented one in five Americans now say they are not affiliated with any religious denomination. Or, looked at another way, nearly four out of five identify with an organized faith. Research also shows those Americans overstate how often they go to church by about half.

http://www.npr.org/2012/10/24/163527979/what-we-say-about-religion-and-what-we-do?sc=17&f=
I post this because I'm curious about what you think your neighbors think. . . about religion which often informs folks' beliefs about the afterlife.  If people really aren't going to church, is that because they don't really believe what is "preached"?


8Oct12  NYTimes OpEd about dying
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/opinion/keller-how-to-die.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121008

More about military suicides
The Pentagon and Congress are working on policies to separate at-risk service members from personal weapons, but gun-rights advocates and many veterans are opposed. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/08/us/with-military-suicides-rising-new-policies-take-shape.html

Also, many stories about last week's murder of Washington & Jefferson College's student-athlete Tim McNerney
* http://www.bringonthecats.com/2012/10/5/3458860/the-national-10-5-12-tim-mcnerney-college-football-usc-trojans-utah-utes
 * http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/postgazette/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=160299312#fbLoggedOut
* http://www.wtae.com/news/local/washington/Washington-Jefferson-College-athlete-s-death-ruled-homicide/-/10932154/16854700/-/xbtsyt/-/index.html
* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lenny-reich/take-a-moment-for-tim_b_1941477.html
* To follow tributes for Tim on Twitter search the hashtag #rip5 (see related post about Digital Memorialization)

4Oct12
Talk of the Nation on NPR today has a segment on grief.  Here's the link (although I don't think it will be "live" until later today (Thursday) after the show finishes).
http://www.npr.org/programs/talk-of-the-nation/

We talked about this in class:  here's the URL
http://theconversationproject.org/