Remembrance of things past

There is in Mr Stravinsky's aspect and manner, in his extraordinarily rapid, almost mechanical motions, in his slight body and his eyes that seemed just to have left off peering in a microscope, more to suggest the entomologist than the musician. That he is an intellect, an enormously developed mental machine, seems the most obvious conclusion.

“A slight, nervous, baldescent, goggled, pleasantly homely figure,” Gillman had thought, “looking somewhat like Mr Wells' great-orbed Martians”: in more modern language, an alien disguised as a human being, or even—could it be?—the devil with a butterfly net. (Stephen Walsh. Stravinsky, A Creative Spring: Russia and France 1882–1934. New York: Knopf, 1999:408.)

Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide

There is a growing consensus that the public in many developed nations wish medical practitioners to be more available for assisting them in terminal illnesses. In a study of over 3000 oncologists from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, it would appear that there is general resistance among physicians to participate in physician assisted suicide. In this survey 10% of oncologists admitted that they had performed physician assisted suicide. Only less than 4% admitted to having performed euthanasia. Those who had received adequate training in end of life care were less likely to have performed euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. In contrast, oncologists who reported not being able to obtain …