When death calls

I hold no political brief for Israel or Ariel Sharon, but I am overwhelmed with a mixture of pity and anger for him, as I am for all guinea pigs. He should be allowed to die naturally, and not be made a victim of an Edgar Allen Poe horror story.

The same thing happened to John Paul II, who had a tangle of tubes coming out of his wasting body, in a long, drawn-out battle with death. Would either of these two men have approved of this?

Sad to say, the Pope probably would. For in 2001 the Vatican issued a document lamenting the shortage of human spare parts, and recommended research into the use of animal organs to save human life.

I say “sad” because Roman Catholics are taught from the cradle that God alone can appoint the hour of death, as most Christians are. Yet at the first sight of His calling card, doctors and do-gooders rush along “the road to Hell (that) is paved with good intentions” to have a tug-of-war with Him.

Without death there can be no eternal life. It is a miraculous foolproof system. From dust to dust to be recycled and bring forth the evaluation of new life. Marcus Aurelius observed: “Yesterday a drop of semen, tomorrow a handful of spice or ashes.”

It is not death, but the dying that is to be feared, for the dying have become the victims of the Neo inquisition. Unfortunately, it is religion that has instilled such supernatural fear of death, so it is religion that must now preach and teach a new dogma of death.