I woke up this morning thinking about death. Or more accurately the end of death. Somehow in my dreams last night we managed to be able to return people from the dead. Completely intact and cured of whatever killed them. (Not at all sure why they had to go through the whole dying thing and why we couldn't instead just cure their diseases and aging, and spare them all the drama, but honestly, I have so little control over my awake mind, I can't imagine being able to control my sleeping one.)
In any event, I spent today trying to figure out what our society would look like without death. I mean of course everyone would want to bring back their loved ones, our parents, spouses, children, and friends. We love them and miss them terribly. But should they all be brought back? And who gets to decide? Can you imagine the brouhaha now if we could just bring Scalia back?????? Or how about Bowie? Could we just let him finish one more last album? Then would we kill him? Would murder lose its sting? Would we get to vote on who stays dead? Who deserves to have more life? How long extra they get? Because clearly there isn't room here on the planet for all these people and even the recently deceased.
Not that I came up with any answers (although my wonderful husband in all the cynical wisdom I love him for, said, "You know exactly who would get to bring people back. Rich people." not that he's wrong...) even in my dreams. But it has been an interesting way for me to spend my random thoughts of the day. I would love to hear what you think. How would our present day United States of America handle the end of death?
