Dying law prof Tom Smith

Dying law prof teaches last class.

He sounds like a better man than I am.  If I were dying any faster than I already am, a law school would not be where I would want to be.  I would want to be skiing, hiking or just generally communing with the rocks and squirrels, with somebody else doing the dishes.  I like my job pretty well, but not that much.

I would also want to see if the Vatican would issue me a special dispensation for a long walk with a fifth of Glenlivet and and a bottle of barbiturates, to somewhere with more wolves than coyotes.  Death with dignity, no television, and finally, a solution to the dreaded hike out. It would only be fair: if Teddy Kennedy can buy an annulment, why shouldn't I be able to buy a hall pass from the feeding tube?  If you don't understand this, don't worry; it's a Catholic thing.  I read about the Reformation and don't see what the big deal is about selling indulgences.  What, they should be free?

The article ultimately linked to tries to make some sort of point about fundamentalist students praying for an atheist law professor.  I don't see what the problem is with that.  It's a free country, you can pray for whomever you want, as long as you do so secretly.  As far as I know, God can grant graces however He pleases.  (I never said indulgences were a bargain.)  So pray away.  As the physicist explained the horseshoe above his door: "The guy who gave it to me said it works whether I believe in it or not."

Comments

[dearieme]

"if Teddy Kennedy can buy an annulment..": one limb of the Reformation occurred in part because the Pope of the day refused an annulment to a Teddy-like figure, on some lame excuse that the broad's brother was an important guy.

[Randy]

William Stuntz, currently at Harvard and formerly of UVa, has his own remarkable reflections on his own battle with cancer at a too obscure website he shares with David Skeel, most of which can be found here:

http://www.law.upenn.edu/blogs/dskeel/archives/health_and_daily_life/

Stuntz's theologically informed meditations on his illness are deeply moving and extraordinarily insightful.

[pchuck]

Yeah, I don't get the vibe in the article about the Christian students and the atheist professor who is a big propenent of separation of church and state; it isn't like the students praying for the guy will lead to the creation of a government mandated religion. I also don't agree with the characterization of these various issues having torn the country apart (the last time the country was "torn apart" was something called the Civil War).