Eric Chevlen

Every sea-born whale is born to drown, Save those lost few who crush their final breath On shore, amid the gawkers come from town To grieve, perhaps, that helpless creature’s death. And deep below, invertebrates abound In silent darkness on the ocean floor To slowly moulder those already drowned, . . . . Continue Reading »

My son summarized my new situation with typical teenage irreverence: “Gee, Dad, after thirty years of providing health care, your new job is denying it.” It’s a funny line, of course, if somewhat harsh. I’ll probably let him out of his room in a few weeks. But his quip is largely untrue. Its bite comes from the fact that it’s not entirely untrue. It’s a strange turn of events, really. After all, I have always been opposed to healthcare rationing. But, then, I have always been opposed to aging, too. I have come to recognize the fundamental similarity between the two… . Continue Reading »

The world God made is infinite”or not. Its essence is of matter”or of thought. If finite”how much more He could have made! If infinite”the same too may be said. A world of matter”should it even be? A world of thought”it matters not to me. How wondrous strange, . . . . Continue Reading »

The ongoing public debate over the legalization of assisted suicide draws participants whose primary concern is not the issue itself but who find it the ideal occasion to advance collateral social initiatives. Thus, as he revealed in the haunting polemic with which he began his notorious public . . . . Continue Reading »

“Manslaughter, I could understand how they would arrive at that. But murder? This? They must have been an astonishingly cruel jury!” Jack Kevorkian told reporter Jack Lessenberry. “You tell them I said this,” he went on. “I don’t want to be a martyr. I want to be free. And that’s why . . . . Continue Reading »

Consider the book we are talking about. It is written in two foreign languages, one of which is native to but one small country, and the other now spoken nowhere on earth. It is the product of a minority culture within a vast and now crumbled empire. The text itself is ancient, handicapped by . . . . Continue Reading »

Seduced by Death: Doctors, Patients, and the Dutch Cure By Herbert Hendin. Norton, 256 pages, $27.50. Somewhere there may be a swimming coach who has never been in the water, but it is difficult to imagine that he is a very good one. Similarly, judges, legislators, and voters are making literally . . . . Continue Reading »

The first thing the coroner noticed was the bright pink blush of the cheeks—the artificial pink that only carbon monoxide gives its victims. And in Oakland County, Michigan, death by carbon monoxide poisoning suggests only one perpetrator: Jack Kevorkian. As an expert in the management of . . . . Continue Reading »