THE LAW OF LIFE In "The Law of Life", Jack London described the rites of passage from life into death in the forests of the Alaskan North. Old Koskoosh sits by a fire while the other members of his tribe prepare to get on the trail. The tribesmen hurry, because the trail is long and they must travel fast. He says to himself, "I go now. It is well?" The question mark is the key to understanding the theme of London's story. Indian law demanded that when a person could no longer contribute to the survival of the tribe, he or she would be left behind by a fire to await inevitable death. Koskoosh's son left a small pile of firewood by the nearly blind old man. When he heard them calling to their dogs and then mushing down the trail, he said to himself, "It is well. I am as a last year's leaf, clinging lightly to the stem. The first breath blows and I fall. My voice is become like an old woman's. My eyes no longer show me the way of my feet, and my feet are heavy, and I am tired. It is well." He mused on what would happen. First his feet would yield, then his hands; and the numbness would travel slowly from the extremities to the body. His head would fall forward upon his knees, and he would rest. It was easy. All men must die. In the last scene, wolves circle him as his fire burns down. He said to himself, "What did it matter after all? Was it not the law of life?" We can assume that he would return to the earth, being recycled primordially in the bellies of the wolves. This was London's most profound description of the survival of the fittest; the Call of the Wild. How far we civilized human beings have digressed from this profound understanding of the law of life. The great debate in our society today is health care: who will pay for it, who should get it for free, and ultimately what is life and death and how far can we or should we go in altering the nature of human existence? A recent debate among professionals in a "Counseling Ethics" course indicated to me that no amount of education or training could help the individual make simple decisions about the questions posed above. As Dr. Jack Kevorkian continues to assist individuals in committing suicide, the debate over euthanasia will also continue. Adding to the controversy is the concept of the "Living Will" which essentially states that the individual has the right to "die with dignity," by not being wired and plumbed by the medical establishment to a host of machines that continue to keep the terminally ill human alive. Thus, some view Dr. Kevorkian as "Doctor Death" while others view him as a savior. In the Old Testament, we are told "thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return." The mortal body will die. But we are also told, that we shall live eternally if we believe and are born again. In John, 3:3:, "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. In the Koran, the great book of the Muslim faith, the believer is told in Sura 3:30, "On the Day when every soul will be confronted with all the good it has done, and all the evil is has done, it will wish there were a great distance between it and its evil. But God cautions you (to remember) Himself. And God is full of kindness to those that serve Him." Our concern with mortal life seems to be a modern day compulsion. Yet, the quantity and the quality of life are in conflict. We are more concerned with living now than living forever. Of course, if we don't believe in a hereafter, all we can do is "live for today." The Living Will and the "right to die with dignity" assault the core of our belief systems. But how are we to live our lives only in a secular context of mortality and immortality? This reminds me of a joke I heard the other day. What is the fastest animal on the face of the earth...? A baboon traveling past Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh. We can now replace diseased livers with healthy baboon livers; human heart valves with pig heart valves. Prostheses replace hands, hips and legs. We are at once fascinated by the "marvels of modern medicine" and still somewhat confused by what it all means. There are no simple answers to any of these questions. If you ask the average person, how often do you go to the local nursing home to visit with those who are living there, the answers may astound you. Most of us will go only when we have to, and deep in our hearts, we often pray for God to take the person who is "living" from day to day oblivious to the world, because he or she suffers from Alzheimer's Disease. Koskoosh's dilemma then does not seem to be so primitive after all. In fact, there seems to be more dignity in his passing to the hereafter beside the fire waiting for the wolves to come and devour him than in our modern medical methodology which charges on average of $94,000 per person to sustain life for an average of 6 months for the terminally person. Yes, we value life. Yes, we cherish all our days on this earth. And yes, we slowly but surely and undeniably have lost touch with the essence of what gives meaning to our lives. In the next few years as technology continues to increase the human life span, we shall face increasingly complex decisions about how to live and how to die. If we believe in a hereafter, we may not be as confused, but "total consciousness" will only come to us at the moment of our death. As the "fire" in all of us slowly burns down, we will finally have to ask ourselves, "What did it matter after all? Was it not the law of life?"