Overstepping bounds on matters of life, death

Ezekiel Emanuel hopes to die at 75, as he states in his recent Atlantic Monthly article, from which I am liberally referencing and commenting. His main reason is because we become less productive as we age. He says we are remembered as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic, and that our living too long places real emotional weights on our progeny. Leaving them with memories of our frailty is the ultimate tragedy.

Emanuel's father, who suffered a heart attack at age 76, is now in his upper 80s. Although his father claims to be happy, Emanuel says no one would say his father is leading a vibrant life. Emanuel does not believe in euthanasia, but will stop screening for cancer after 75. No colonoscopies after 65. No screening for prostate cancer at any age. After 75, no treatments for cancer, invasive cardiac treatments, flu shots or antibiotics.

Ezekiel is a Democrat and brother of Rahm Emanuel, mayor of Chicago and former Obama White House chief of staff. Ezekiel is director of the Clinical Bioethics Department at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and heads the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He served as special adviser to the White House and is an architect of Obamacare. He challenges us to contemplate whether our consumption is worth our contribution.

Is your contribution versus consumption lacking when compared with Emanuel? Emanuel gives advice on when to die, but openly admits to not having the answers and seems to say he has avoided giving much thought about God or the afterlife.

The biblical prophet Ezekiel admonished the Israelites in exile about their lack of concern for the things of God. The name Emanuel means "God with us." When God is removed from government, God help us.

Eric Carver

Palatine