Archivo etiqueta «Muerte»
By Paul Farmer, a physician and anthropologist and a co-founder of Partners in Health and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (THE WASHINGTON POST, 18/11/11):
Ten million people — many of them young and most of them poor — will die around the world this year from diseases for which safe, effective and affordable treatments exist. In Haiti, these are known as “stupid deaths.” What’s more, inadequate health services predominate precisely where the burden of disease is heaviest, keeping a billion souls from leading full lives in good health.
In recent … Seguir leyendo
By Simon Sebag Montefiore, the author of Jerusalem: The Biography (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 27/10/11):
“All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure,” wrote Enoch Powell, the controversial but often perspicacious British politician, “because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.” But the political lives of tyrants play out human affairs with a special intensity: the death of a democratic leader long after his retirement is a private matter, but the death of a tyrant is always a political act that reflects the character of his power. … Seguir leyendo
Por Salvador Macip, médico, científico y escritor (EL PERIÓDICO, 22/10/11):
En una célebre entrevista televisiva del año pasado, Eduard Punset dijo que no estaba escrito que él debía morir. Esta frase me la han citado amigos y periodistas un montón de veces desde entonces, quizá en parte porque en mi laboratorio estudiamos el envejecimiento y la muerte celular. Por desgracia, sacada de contexto parece más una de esas máximas que te encuentras en las galletas de la suerte de los restaurantes chinos que un pensamiento con ánimos de estimular las neuronas, que con toda seguridad era la intención original. … Seguir leyendo
By Sebastian Junger, the author of WAR and co-director of Restrepo (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 17/07/11):
Several years ago I spent time with a platoon of Army infantry at a remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan, and after the deployment I was surprised that only one of the soldiers chose to leave the military at the end of his contract; many others re-upped and eventually went on to fight for another year in the same area. The soldier who got out, Brendan O’Byrne, remained a good friend of mine as he struggled to fit in to civilian life back home.… Seguir leyendo
By Robert Muggah, research director of the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies; Athena Kolbe, who works with the Department of Political Science and the School of Social Work, University of Michigan; Royce Hutson, an assistant professor of social work at Wayne State University and Harry Shannon, a professor of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University (LOS ANGELES TIMES, 12/07/11):
Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, there have been at least 60,000 civilian deaths that wouldn’t otherwise have occurred. Or maybe that number is closer to … Seguir leyendo
By Jim Rasenberger, the author of The Brilliant Disaster: J.F.K., Castro and America’s Doomed Invasion of Cuba’s Bay of Pigs (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 06/05/11):
Amid the jubilation surrounding Osama bin Laden’s death on Monday, which followed closely on the heels of an apparent attempt to take out Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in an air strike, it’s difficult to remember a time when “assassination” was a dirty word in this country. But it was, and not so long ago. Before the practice becomes a bad habit, we might want to heed the counsel of the past.
The peak of outrage … Seguir leyendo
Por Andrés de la Oliva Santos, catedrático de Derecho Procesal. Universidad Complutense (ABC, 11/12/09):
Los portavoces de varias asociaciones judiciales y la Organización Médica Colegial (OMC) afirman que la alimentación forzosa de Aminatu Haidar no es posible a causa de la Ley 41/2002, de 14 de noviembre, «básica reguladora de la autonomía del paciente y de derechos y obligaciones en materia de información y documentación clínica». Según la prensa, la OMC ha llegado a afirmar que sería delictivo salvar la vida de Haidar contra su voluntad. Pienso que esos magistrados y médicos cometen un grave error, compartido, al parecer, … Seguir leyendo
Por Juan Luis de León Azcárate, profesor de la Facultad de Teología, Universidad de Deusto (EL CORREO DIGITAL, 02/10/09):
Hace casi veinte años en una pequeña aldea hondureña llamada El Pino, dedicada al cultivo de la piña, acompañé a un sacerdote claretiano a visitar a una mujer muy enferma por cuya vida se temía. Pancha (ése era su nombre) era de confesión evangélica y si bien nosotros estábamos allí colaborando con la ‘Santa Misión’ católica, sus parientes nos pidieron visitarla porque ella, paradójicamente, quería confesarse. Era de noche, pero el calor y la humedad propios del lugar no dejaron … Seguir leyendo
By Ilora Finlay. Baroness Finlay of Llandaff is an independent crossbench peer and Professor of Palliative Medicine at the University of Cardiff (THE TIMES, 24/09/09):
“I just want to die.” How often I have heard that phrase uttered as a way to ask “would I be better off dead?”, to seek reassurance and support, to express fears, or even just to open a conversation on how death will occur. I have seen people who were firm supporters of euthanasia when well who struggle to stay alive against all the odds when dying. And I have often heard people go … Seguir leyendo
By Ben Macintyre (THE TIMES, 10/09/09):
Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard lies on his side in the Afghan earth, his gun still clutched in his hand. The air is speckled with the dust thrown up by the rocket-propelled grenade that has just been fired from a grove of pomegranate trees, blowing off one of Bernard’s legs.
As the camera shutter clicks, two other US Marines, blurred in their frantic efforts to save his life, are shouting: “Bernard, you’re doing fine. You’re gonna make it.”
The 21-year-old soldier did not make it.
This photograph of the dying Marine, taken by the Associated … Seguir leyendo
By Ben Macyntire (THE TIMES, 07/05/09):
Across the Western Front, the anonymous war dead are reclaiming their names. At Fromelles scientists have begun to exhume the bodies of men cut down by German machineguns in 1916 and buried in mass graves, to try to identify them through DNA tests.
In the Red Cross archives, historians are poring over newly discovered wartime lists of the names of hundreds of thousands of dead soldiers, in the hope that those buried under blank headstones can be identified at last.
The unknown soldier is a dying breed. Today it is all but unthinkable that … Seguir leyendo
Por Francesc Escribano, periodista (EL PERIÓDICO, 14/03/09):
Jade Goody es una chica inglesa de 27 años. Sufre cáncer y tiene mal pronóstico. Se está muriendo. Jade se hizo tremendamente popular en su país después de protagonizar una de las primeras ediciones de Big Brother. Un programa que, como es sabido, no busca a gente anónima, sino más bien a gente que no sea nadie. Les pagan por no hacer nada y por relacionarse entre ellos. Si lo hacen bien, pueden llegar a pagarles por ir a exhibirse a discotecas y por asistir a programas de televisión en los que … Seguir leyendo
By Thomas Lynch, a funeral director and lecturer at the University of Michigan and the author of the memoir Booking Passage (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 01/11/08):
The pumpkins, penny candy and neighborly hordes of goblins and ghosts shouting “Trick or treat!” remind us of the ancients and their belief that the souls of the dead must be appeased. But it’s the days that follow Halloween that most interest me.
All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are time set aside to broker peace between the living and the dead. Whether you are pagan or religious, Celt or Christian, New … Seguir leyendo
By PJ O’Rorke, a correspondent for the Weekly Standard and the Atlantic (THE GUARDIAN, 07/10/08):
I looked death in the face. All right, I didn’t. I glimpsed him in a crowd. I’ve been diagnosed with cancer, of a very treatable kind. I’m told I have a 95% chance of survival. Come to think of it, as a drinking, smoking, saturated-fat hound, my chance of survival has been improved by cancer.
I still cursed God, as we all do when we get bad news and pain. Not even the most faith-impaired among us shouts: “Damn quantum mechanics!”, “damn organic chemistry!”, … Seguir leyendo
Por Salvador Pániker es filósofo y presidente de la Asociación Derecho a Morir Dignamente (EL PAÍS, 17/09/08):
La polémica desatada por las muy sensatas declaraciones del ministro Bernat Soria a propósito del suicidio asistido, bien merece un nuevo comentario sobre el debate de la muerte digna en general. Lo recomendable es que ese debate sea sosegado y racional, sin concesiones a la demagogia y atendiendo a toda la complejidad del problema. No tiene demasiada gracia, por ejemplo, declarar que el suicidio asistido equivale a liquidar a la gente con fondos públicos.
Veamos. Como he expuesto en anteriores ocasiones, suicidio asistido … Seguir leyendo