THE STRUGGLE TO OVERCOME ILLNESS

In the front lines of medicine, hard-fought battles are taking place to

expend human life. For organ transplants from brain-dead patients,

teams of physicians work together with split-second timing, removing

the organs and packing them in ice so they can be airlifted by helicopter

or plane. The heart must be transplanted within four hours, so there is

literally not a second to spare. The total cost of a transplant, from deter-

mination of brain death through postsurgical monitoring, runs to hun-

dreds of thousands of dollars.

  But if that same life is doomed to disappear without trace in the end,

why go to such extreme measures to preserve it? One heart transplant

patient, asked by a newspaper reporter what he planned to do with his

new lease on life, answered, “ Drink beer and and go to night baseball

games.” Another man living overseas, desperately sick, raised the neces-

sary funds through the goodwill donations of strangers and traveled to

the United States to await a donor― only to cause widespread outrage

after his successful transplant by refusing to return to work and instead

choosing to spend his days gambling. It is hard not to sympathize with

one indignant supporter who snorted that he felt foolish for having do-

nated so much money.

  We are glad to see scientific advances that extend the average human

lifespan. But the question then arises, “What will people do with the ex-

tra time they have been giving?  Ethical debate over organ transplants re-

volves around secondary issues like confirming the will of the donor, en-

suring fairness in access to the pool of organs, or setting and enforcing

standards for determination of brain death, while the fundamental gues-

tion―”Why resort to such extraordinary measures in order to keep peo-

ple alive? ―goes unasked.

  The goal of suffering in order to combat disease must be not merely

life, but happiness. Treatment that serves simply to prolong suffering is

meaningless. But what if people used their extra time on earth to fulfill

the purpose of life and know the joy of living? Would not today’s life-

saving medical practices then be truly wonderful?

  We are continually surrounded by a chorus of voices urging us to live

and persevere, yet no one stops to consider or thinks to ask why, if life is

so painful, we are bound to go on living. Could anything be more mysterious?