XPost: alt.consciousness.near-death-exp, alt.support.grief, alt.   
   ock-n-roll.metal.death   
   XPost: alt.christnet, alt.usenet.kooks, alt.suicide   
   From: suzych@swcp.com   
      
   > > IV. Preparation   
   > >   
   > > There is little to do except assure the dying that all that can be   
   > > done is done, and that they are now going to cease. There are some   
   > > helpful guides in printed matter that can offer further insight:   
   > >   
   > > Improving Care for the End of Life: A Sourcebook for Health Care   
   > > Managers and Clinicians   
   > > by Joanne Lynn, Janice Lynch Schuster, Center to Improve Care of the   
   > > Dying, Andrea Kabcenell, Institute for Healthcare Improvement   
      
   Consider adding: My Father's Ghost, by Suzy McKee Charnas, Tarcher,   
   2003.  This book is a beautiful and insightful memoir about caring   
   for a failing parent and acceptance of the limitations of life and   
   relationships.   
      
   > > V. Uses of   
   > >   
   > > Death has many uses. When one stops to consider the positive aspects   
   > > of death, it often has breathtaking consequences in the mind.   
   > >   
   > > - Removing the embittered and feeble-minded.   
      
   Aw, come on -- what about the smart, funny, gifted, loving and beloved   
   people?  They get removed too!  I figure it's a wash . . .   
      
   > > - Provides ample subject for literature and song.   
      
   Super-important, for those of us who love literature, art, theater,   
   opera, and music!  In fact, what happens to all of these, in the   
   event of a widely available antidote to the decline and death of the   
   body?   
      
   > > While we are mastering technology at a rapid pace and learning new   
   > > ways to lengthen life, the concept of death - life ceasing - is as   
   > > inherent to life itself as the concept of life beginning. It is   
   > > unlikely we'll ever get rid of death.   
      
   Not at all a given.  See Bill McKibben's book "Enough", recently   
   published, about the jumps we are about to make in medical technology   
   which could render death a questionable end for the very rich, at   
   least, in the short run and maybe for many others later on.  This is one   
   proposed form claimed for the concept of "the coming singularity", a   
   quantum leap in human conditions of existence that many futuroligists of   
   various stripes are predicting (or saying that we're already launched   
   into but don't recognize yet).  That is, if death were to become only a   
   possibility rather than a necessary end, we would be looking back at all   
   of previous literature across a enormous divide.  On our side (those who   
   make it through the Singularity), "Tristan and Iseult" will have a   
   different meaning (if any) than it has had to humans on the far side.   
      
   Although discussions of the proposed Singularity tend to be pretty damn   
   nebulous, another possible definition has been the invention of true   
   artificial intelligence that surpasses our own; people on one side of   
   the divide (before it is in effect) will have never lived with the   
   awareness of something extant in the world that is more intelligent than   
   human capability.  On the far side, people will grow up in a world in   
   which such a superior intelligence exists (or has existed and been dealt   
   with in some way so that it doesn't any more?), which must make for a   
   different world outlook.   
      
   Prepare to meet ---  ?????   
   --   
   Crow   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)