The Justice Network
Death
Death And Budgets
David BrooksDeath And Budgets
The New York Times
by David Brooks
July 14, 2011
I hope you had the chance to read and reread Dudley Clendinen’s splendid essay, "The Good Short Life," in The Times’s Sunday Review section. Clendinen is dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S. If he uses all the available medical technology, it will leave him, in a few years’ time, "a conscious but motionless, mute, withered, incontinent mummy of my former self."
Instead of choosing that long, dehumanizing, expensive course, Clendinen has decided to face death as one of life’s “most absorbing thrills and challenges.” He concludes: “When the music stops — when I can’t tie my bow tie, tell a funny story, walk my dog, talk with Whitney, kiss someone special, or tap out lines like this — I’ll know that Life is over. It’s time to be gone.”
Clendinen’s article is worth reading for the way he defines what life is. Life is not just breathing and existing as a self-enclosed skin bag. It’s doing the activities with others you were put on earth to do.
But it’s also valuable as a backdrop to the current budget mess. This fiscal crisis is about many things, but one of them is our inability to face death — our willingness to spend our nation into bankruptcy to extend life for a few more sickly months. Read more here
The Good Short Life
Dudley Clendinen, who has Lou Gehrig's disease, at his home in Baltimore last week.The New York Times
by Dudley Clendinen
July 9, 2011
I HAVE wonderful friends. In this last year, one took me to Istanbul. One gave me a box of hand-crafted chocolates. Fifteen of them held two rousing, pre-posthumous
wakes for me. Several wrote large checks. Two sent me a boxed set of all the Bach sacred cantatas. And one, from Texas, put a hand on my thinning shoulder, and appeared to study the ground where we
were standing. He had flown in to see me.
"We need to go buy you a pistol, don’t we?" he asked quietly. He meant to shoot myself with.
"Yes, Sweet Thing," I said, with a smile. "We do."
I loved him for that.
I love them all. I am acutely lucky in my family and friends, and in my daughter, my work and my life. But I have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S., more kindly
known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, for the great Yankee hitter and first baseman who was told he had it in 1939, accepted the verdict with such famous grace, and died less than two years later. He was
almost 38.
I sometimes call it Lou, in his honor, and because the familiar feels less threatening. But it is not a kind disease. The nerves and muscles pulse and twitch, and
progressively, they die. From the outside, it looks like the ripple of piano keys in the muscles under my skin. From the inside, it feels like anxious butterflies, trying to get out. It starts in the
hands and feet and works its way up and in, or it begins in the muscles of the mouth and throat and chest and abdomen, and works its way down and out. The second way is called bulbar, and that’s the
way it is with me. We don’t live as long, because it affects our ability to breathe early on, and it just gets worse.
At the moment, for 66, I look pretty good. I’ve lost 20 pounds. My face is thinner. I even get some "Hey, there, Big Boy," looks, which I like. I think of it as my
cosmetic phase. But it’s hard to smile, and chew. I’m short of breath. I choke a lot. I sound like a wheezy, lisping drunk. For a recovering alcoholic, it’s really annoying.
There is no meaningful treatment. No cure. There is one medication, Rilutek, which might make a few months’ difference. It retails for about $14,000 a year. That doesn’t
seem worthwhile to me. If I let this run the whole course, with all the human, medical, technological and loving support I will start to need just months from now, it will leave me, in 5 or 8 or 12
or more years, a conscious but motionless, mute, withered, incontinent mummy of my former self. Maintained by feeding and waste tubes, breathing and suctioning machines.
No, thank you. I hate being a drag. I don’t think I’ll stick around for the back half of Lou. Read more here
Trying to Live Forever
Trying to Live Forever
The New York Times
by Gary Gutting
August 9, 2011
The Stone is featuring occasional posts by Gary Gutting, a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, that apply critical thinking to information and
events that have appeared in the news.
Almost every day I read about a new medical study that says I would be healthier if, for example, I ate more fish, drank red rather than white wine, took enchinacea, or
began practicing yoga. Do such studies represent a significant body of knowledge that I should pay attention to?
An article in the May Consumer Reports Health shed some light on this question. It discussed the widely publicized medical study that showed, contrary to
expectations, that "raising HDL (good) cholesterol with drugs did nothing to protect against heart attacks." This, the article said, was surprising because observational studies had shown that
people with lower levels of HDL had more heart attacks than those with higher levels of HDL. An observational study, however, shows only a correlation between two variables (e.g., level
of HDL and number of heart attacks). The new result came from a randomized clinical study, using one group of patients who receive a given treatment and a "control group" of patients who do
not. Unlike an observational study, such a study can show whether or not, for example, higher HDL actually prevents heart attacks. The article went on to emphasize that "we should almost
never rely on the results of observational studies, which can only suggest associations with disease but not prove them."
There are cases in which very careful observational studies involving large numbers of subjects can establish causal connections; this was how we learned that smoking
causes lung cancer. But most observational studies, including almost all reported in popular media, use a small number of subjects and, at best, suggest directions for further research and do
not establish reliable conclusions. Read more here
George Carlin on Death
George Carlin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his
comedy albums.
Carlin was noted for his black humor as well as his thoughts on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and various taboo subjects. Carlin and his
"Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's power to
regulate indecent material on the public airwaves. Read more here
Death
Death
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Death is the termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. The word refers
both to the particular processes of life's cessation as well as to the condition or state of a formerly living body. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include predation, malnutrition,
disease, and accidents or intentional trauma resulting in terminal injury.
The nature of death has been for millennia a central concern of the world's religious traditions and of philosophical enquiry, and belief in some kind of afterlife or
rebirth has been a central aspect of religious faith. In modern scientific enquiry, the origin and nature of consciousness has yet to be fully understood; any such view about the existence or
non-existence of consciousness after death therefore remains speculative. Read more here
An Indefensible Punishment
Troy DavisAn Indefensible Punishment
The New York Times
Editorial
September 25, 2011
When the Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty 35 years ago, it did so provisionally. Since then, it has sought to articulate legal standards for states to follow
that would ensure the fair administration of capital punishment and avoid the arbitrariness and discrimination that had led it to strike down all state death penalty statutes in 1972.
As the unconscionable execution of Troy Davis in Georgia last week underscores, the court has failed because it is impossible to succeed at this task. The death penalty
is grotesque and immoral and should be repealed.
The court’s 1976 framework for administering the death penalty, balancing aggravating factors like the cruelty of the crime against mitigating ones like the defendant’s
lack of a prior criminal record, came from the American Law Institute, the nonpartisan group of judges, lawyers and law professors. In 2009, after a review of decades of executions, the group concluded that the system could not be fixed and abandoned trying.
Read more here
Amnesty International: The state of Georgia shamefully executed Troy Davis on September 21, 2011 despite serious doubts about his guilt.
Justice for Troy Davis
Not In My Name Pledge
American Law Institute
Capital Punishment, ALI.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [973.5 KB]
Texas Death Row Inmates Will No Longer Get Special Last Meals
Not much to look forward to after a hearty last meal: The execution chamber at the Texas prison system's Walls Unit in HuntsvilleTexas Death Row Inmates Will No Longer Get Special Last
Meals
ABA Journal, Law News Now
by Debra Cassens Weiss
September 23, 2011
Texas has eliminated special last meals for death-row inmates after one prisoner’s huge food request brought criticism from a state lawmaker.
Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed on Wednesday without touching his last meal, the Associated Press reports. His
food request included two chicken fried steaks, a triple bacon cheeseburger, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a pint of ice cream, a pizza and peanut butter fudge.
State Sen. John Whitmire said Thursday he would seek legislation to end last meals unless prison officials stopped providing the special food. Prisons director Brad
Livingston responded with an announcement that he’s putting an immediate end to the practice.
According to the AP story, Brewer’s request may have been extensive, but it was not the largest or most bizarre. Two years ago, one Texas inmate requested dirt for his
final meal.
It's a moot point now, but the Dallas Morning News blog
The Scoop points out that last meal requests weren't always satisfied. The prison kitchen used food that was on hand that was the closest thing possible to the menu requested. Huge food requests
were also trimmed down to reasonable portions. Read more
here
Philosophy as an Art of Dying
Philosophy as an Art of Dying
The New York Times
by Costica Bradatan
June 12, 2011
It happens rarely, but when it does it causes a commotion of great proportions; it attracts the attention of all, becomes a popular topic for discussion and debate in
marketplaces and taverns. It drives people to take sides, quarrel and fight, which for things philosophical is quite remarkable. It happened to Socrates, Hypatia, Thomas More, Giordano Bruno, Jan
Patocka, and a few others. Due to an irrevocable death sentence, imminent mob execution or torture to death, these philosophers found themselves in the most paradoxical of situations: lovers of logic
and rational argumentation, silenced by brute force; professional makers of discourses, banned from using the word; masters of debate and contradiction, able to argue no more. What was left of these
philosophers then? Just their silence, their sheer physical presence. The only means of expression left to them, their own bodies — and dying bodies at that. Read more here
McCain Agrees With Sarah Palin On "Death Panel" Myth
Sen. John McCain tells George Stephanopoulos that he sides with his former running mate Sarah Palin on there being a "death panel" in President Obama's health care proposal.
Socrates
Socrates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Socrates, c. 469 BC–399 BC, was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the
founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of
his contemporary Aristophanes. Many would claim that Plato's dialogues are the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity.
Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who also lends his
name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of
questions are asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. It is Plato's Socrates that also made important and lasting contributions to
the fields of epistemology and logic, and the influence of his ideas and approach remains strong in providing a foundation for much western philosophy that followed. Read more here
Trial and Death of Socrates
The Death of Socrates, by Jacques-Louis David
Trial and Death of Socrates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Trial of Socrates refers to the trial and the subsequent execution of the classical Athenian philosopher Socrates in 399 BC. Socrates was tried on the basis of two notoriously ambiguous charges: corrupting the youth and impiety (in Greek, asebeia). More specifically, Socrates’ accusers cited two "impious" acts: "failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges" and "introducing new deities." A majority of the 501 dikasts (Athenian citizens chosen by lot to serve as jurors) voted to convict him. Consistent with common practice, the dikasts determined Socrates’ punishment with another vote. Socrates was ultimately sentenced to death by drinking a hemlock-based liquid. Primary sources for accounts of the trial are given by two of Socrates’ students, Plato and Xenophon; well known later interpretations include those of the journalist I.F. Stone and the classics scholar Robin Waterfield. The trial is one of the most famous of all time. Read more here
Dr. Death, Jack Kevorkian
Jack Kevorkian
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacob "Jack" Kevorkian (May 26, 1928 – June 3, 2011), commonly known as "Dr. Death", was an
American pathologist, euthanasia activist, painter, composer and instrumentalist. He is best known for publicly championing a terminal patient's right to die via physician-assisted suicide; he said
he assisted at least 130 patients to that end. He famously said, "dying is not a crime".
Beginning in 1999, Kevorkian served eight years of a 10-to-25-year prison sentence for second-degree murder. He was released on parole on June 1, 2007, on condition he
would not offer suicide advice to any other person.
As an oil painter and a jazz musician, Kevorkian marketed limited quantities of his visual and musical artwork to the public. Read more here
Dr. Jack Kevorkian 60 Minutes Interview, 1996
The Life and Deaths of Jack Kevorkian (1928–2011)
The Life and Deaths of Jack Kevorkian (1928–2011)
Time Magazine
June 3, 2011
"My specialty is death," Dr. Jack Kevorkian told TIME back in 1993 as he burnished his qualifications to counsel people on taking their own lives. The white-haired, wiry
physician cited his specialization and, with no evidence of humility, declared, "If not a pathologist, who? Would you have a pediatrician do it? Or let's get more absurd. What if I was a urologist?
Could I help only men end their lives?"
When TIME did its cover on "Dr. Death" 18 years ago, Kevorkian was about to participate in his 16th assisted suicide. By the time his own end came — in Detroit, from
kidney-related complications on the eve of the 21st anniversary of his first assisted suicide — the controversial physician was said to have had a role in more than 130 deaths. He had also served
more than eight years in prison for second-degree murder and had the out-of-body pleasure of seeing Al Pacino portray him in an HBO movie called You Don't Know Jack. Read more here
George Carlin Death
Wrongful death claim
Wrongful death claim
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wrongful death is a claim in common law jurisdictions against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. Under common law, a dead person cannot bring a suit, and this created a loophole in which activities that resulted in a person's injury would result in civil sanction but activities that resulted in a person's death would not. Read more here
Florida Wrongful Death Act, § 768.16, Florida Statutes
Link to the McMillen Law Firm
Links below to the 2011 Florida Statutes Online Sunshine, Florida Wrongful Death Act, section 768.16, Florida Statutes
768.16 Wrongful Death Act.--Sections 768.16-768.26 may be cited as the "Florida Wrongful Death Act."
768.17 Legislative intent.--It is the public policy of the state to shift the losses resulting when wrongful death occurs from the survivors of the decedent to the wrongdoer. Sections
768.16-768.26 are remedial and shall be liberally construed.
768.18 Definitions.--As used in ss. 768.16-768.26:
(1) "Survivors" means the decedent's spouse, children, parents, and, when partly or wholly dependent on the decedent for support or services, any blood relatives and
adoptive brothers and sisters. It includes the child born out of wedlock of a mother, but not the child born out of wedlock of the father unless the father has recognized a responsibility for the
child's support.
(2) "Minor children" means children under 25 years of age, notwithstanding the age of majority.
(3) "Support" includes contributions in kind as well as money.
(4) "Services" means tasks, usually of a household nature, regularly performed by the decedent that will be a necessary expense to the survivors of the decedent. These
services may vary according to the identity of the decedent and survivor and shall be determined under the particular facts of each case.
(5) "Net accumulations" means the part of the decedent's expected net business or salary income, including pension benefits, that the decedent probably would have
retained as savings and left as part of her or his estate if the decedent had lived her or his normal life expectancy. "Net business or salary income" is the part of the decedent's probable gross
income after taxes, excluding income from investments continuing beyond death, that remains after deducting the decedent's personal expenses and support of survivors, excluding contributions in
kind.
768.19 Right of action.--When the death of a person is caused by the wrongful act, negligence, default, or breach of contract or warranty of any person, including those occurring on
navigable waters, and the event would have entitled the person injured to maintain an action and recover damages if death had not ensued, the person or watercraft that would have been liable in
damages if death had not ensued shall be liable for damages as specified in this act notwithstanding the death of the person injured, although death was caused under circumstances constituting a
felony.
768.20 Parties.--The action shall be brought by the decedent's personal representative, who shall recover for the benefit of the decedent's survivors and estate all damages, as specified
in this act, caused by the injury resulting in death. When a personal injury to the decedent results in death, no action for the personal injury shall survive, and any such action pending at the time
of death shall abate. The wrongdoer's personal representative shall be the defendant if the wrongdoer dies before or pending the action. A defense that would bar or reduce a survivor's recovery if
she or he were the plaintiff may be asserted against the survivor, but shall not affect the recovery of any other survivor.
768.21 Damages.--All potential beneficiaries of a recovery for wrongful death, including the decedent's estate, shall be identified in the complaint, and their relationships to the
decedent shall be alleged. Damages may be awarded as follows:
(1) Each survivor may recover the value of lost support and services from the date of the decedent's injury to her or his death, with interest, and future loss of
support and services from the date of death and reduced to present value. In evaluating loss of support and services, the survivor's relationship to the decedent, the amount of the decedent's
probable net income available for distribution to the particular survivor, and the replacement value of the decedent's services to the survivor may be considered. In computing the duration of future
losses, the joint life expectancies of the survivor and the decedent and the period of minority, in the case of healthy minor children, may be considered.
(2) The surviving spouse may also recover for loss of the decedent's companionship and protection and for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury.
(3) Minor children of the decedent, and all children of the decedent if there is no surviving spouse, may also recover for lost parental companionship, instruction, and
guidance and for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury. For the purposes of this subsection, if both spouses die within 30 days of one another as a result of the same wrongful act or
series of acts arising out of the same incident, each spouse is considered to have been predeceased by the other.
(4) Each parent of a deceased minor child may also recover for mental pain and suffering from the date of injury. Each parent of an adult child may also recover for
mental pain and suffering if there are no other survivors.
(5) Medical or funeral expenses due to the decedent's injury or death may be recovered by a survivor who has paid them.
(6) The decedent's personal representative may recover for the decedent's estate the following:
(a) Loss of earnings of the deceased from the date of injury to the date of death, less lost support of survivors excluding contributions in kind, with interest. Loss of
the prospective net accumulations of an estate, which might reasonably have been expected but for the wrongful death, reduced to present money value, may also be recovered:
1. If the decedent's survivors include a surviving spouse or lineal descendants; or
2. If the decedent is not a minor child as defined in s. 768.18(2), there are no lost support and services recoverable under subsection (1), and there is a surviving
parent.
(b) Medical or funeral expenses due to the decedent's injury or death that have become a charge against her or his estate or that were paid by or on behalf of decedent,
excluding amounts recoverable under subsection (5).
(c) Evidence of remarriage of the decedent's spouse is admissible.
(7) All awards for the decedent's estate are subject to the claims of creditors who have complied with the requirements of probate law concerning claims.
(8) The damages specified in subsection (3) shall not be recoverable by adult children and the damages specified in subsection (4) shall not be recoverable by parents of
an adult child with respect to claims for medical negligence as defined by s. 766.106(1).
768.22 Form of verdict.--The amounts awarded to each survivor and to the estate shall be stated separately in the verdict.
768.23 Protection of minors and incompetents.--The court shall provide protection for any amount awarded for the benefit of a minor child or an incompetent pursuant to the Florida
Guardianship Law.
768.24 Death of a survivor before judgment.--A survivor's death before final judgment shall limit the survivor's recovery to lost support and services to the date of his or her death.
The personal representative shall pay the amount recovered to the personal representative of the deceased survivor.
768.25 Court approval of settlements.--While an action under this act is pending, no settlement as to amount or apportionment among the beneficiaries which is objected to by any survivor
or which affects a survivor who is a minor or an incompetent shall be effective unless approved by the court.
768.26 Litigation expenses.--Attorneys' fees and other expenses of litigation shall be paid by the personal representative and deducted from the awards to the survivors and the estate in
proportion to the amounts awarded to them, but expenses incurred for the benefit of a particular survivor or the estate shall be paid from their awards.
Obituaries
Glamorous: Nancy Wake was the most famous member of the French Underground movement and delayed the 2nd SS Panzer Division heading towards Normandy by 16 daysNancy Wake, War Hero, 98
MailOnline
by Tony Rennell
August 9, 2011
Blisteringly sexy, she killed Nazis with her bare hands and had a 5 million-franc bounty on her head. As she dies at 98, the extraordinary story of the real Charlotte Gray
She stares into the camera with a coquettish half-smile and an unflinching come-hither look. The eyebrows are plucked, the lips full, the long auburn hair a classic
1940s style, falling onto the shoulders of her khaki uniform.
She could easily have been one of the sassy songbirds who brightened up World War II. But this was the face of Nancy Wake, one of that conflict’s bravest underground
fighters against the Germans in France — and certainly the most stylish.
A male comrade-in-arms in the French Resistance summed her up as: ‘The most feminine woman I know, until the fighting starts. And then she is like five men.’ She lived
up to both parts of that compliment.
The White Mouse - Nancy WakeSo feminine was she that when escaping from pursuers on one notable occasion, she dressed in a smart frock, silk stockings, high-heeled shoes and a camel-hair coat,
arguing that she didn’t want to look like a hunted woman.
In that same outfit, she jumped from a moving train into a vineyard to avoid capture at a Nazi checkpoint.
And so aggressive was she that, after being parachuted into France as a Special Operations Executive agent, she disposed of a German guard with her bare hands and liked
nothing better than bowling along in the front seat of a fast car through the countryside, a Sten gun on her lap and a cigar between her teeth, in search of Germans to kill.
Passionate and impulsive, with a tendency to draw attention to herself, she was not the ideal undercover agent. Her superiors didn’t think she would last long behind
enemy lines.
But Wake proved them wrong and died this week, aged 98, in a nursing home for retired veterans in London. Her death brought to an end a life of such daring, courage and
glamour that she was the inspiration for the Sebastian Faulks novel Charlotte Gray, which was made into a film starring Cate Blanchett. Read
more here
Reader comment: I find it terrible that I'm 23 and I had no idea this woman existed. We didn't learn about people like this in school, but I wish we had. What an inspiration, what a hero. Rest in
Peace Nancy, I hope you find peace and happiness wherever it may be that you are now. You were a true hero. Thanks for the article DM, nice to read about something other than [insert celebritie's
name here]'s breasts/diet/bikini.
- Becky, Manchester, 10/8/2011 13:36
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