A Good Death – how do we measure the value of ‘a life’?
28th January 2008
Over at http://unfspb.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/a-good-death/#more-336 there is an interesting discussion that arises out of the death of the actor Heath Ledger.
His death is often described in media reports as a ‘tragedy’ – but how do we balance the value of a young life lost and an old life? Is the length the aspect that prevents us from seeing a death as tragic?
Does the author at UNFSB really think that Heath’s death was a ‘good’ one? Or is the idea of a short, wonderful life being better than a long, but maybe bland one a useful corrective to our usual view – or a naive and overly-romantic notion?
dave
Thanks for bringing both of these to my attention. Both raise questions about their actual content, but also about freedom of sppech, expression, etc. Hopefully there are enough sensible people out there to dismiss both with the contempt they deserve.But another question is precisely about who the audiences for these remarks are, how did people react to them and so on.Neil