The Essays of Dominic Martia

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"No Dominion - Defanging Death"

Recently The New York Times News Service reported that Mssr. Gil Bernardi, the mayor of Le Lavandou, France had enacted a law prohibiting death. Exhibiting a wonderful blend of practicality and wit, Mssr. Bernardi was attempting to solve a serious community problem--the dearth of cemetery space. His law, though justified, is too dogmatic. To fully abolish death more than mere fiat will be required. The effort must advance on several fronts.

First, since the word is father to the thought, proscribe absolutely any verbal references. The verb to d--, the noun d----, the adjective d--- would never again be spoken or printed. Even the more clinical and legalistic term "deceased" should apply only to people who have been gone at least a year. Those gone less than a year have "entered the next phase."

Second, Out of sight, out of mind. People in the process of moving to the next phase should be put into special holding units separate from the structures that house people who, even if seriously ill, are still in the midst of this phase. We've already advanced a great distance toward this objective, but more can be done. For instance, visitors to those in process, rather than confront the actual person can be treated to videotapes or photo-collages of the person when he or she was in the midst of this phase. Tapes might run continuously while the actual person expires in another location, thereby eliminating the psychic disruption caused by the immediate experience of actually witnessing a transition. Eventually the line between this phase and the next would be eliminated.

Finally, since memory is mind and mind is matter, any recollection of persons who have transitioned should be considered as proof that they retain physical existence "in another sphere" from which they visit our minds. Since so many people already believe this, it should not be difficult to promulgate the notion and even perhaps, following the example of Mssr. Bernardi, to enact a law defining memories of the departed as legal persons. Naturally this would imply that they would be entitled to all the protections of law afforded to any other persons, which would no doubt give rise to a new legal specialty. But that's another problem.

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