When things become overly intense I tend to sort of zone out and fixate on something in the environment. In this case, it was the running of a photocopier.

-im really sorry but there wasn’t anything more we could do…

The light was thin and bulged in the middle. Although of course it didn’t. In truth the light was a large ambient square. If one were to lift the plastic cover they could see that. “Thin” and “bulged” were just a result of my flawed perspective. In a way every category was like that. Even life and death. In the early 20th century life ended when the heart stopped. But what counts as dead has shifted as technology has improved.

-she sustained very heavy injuries and there was just no way we could…

I know people, real living people, who’s hearts have stopped. While the edifice of global medicine continues to march on, even life and death threaten to be redefined. I know people, real living people.

-are you even listening?

But would this process ever stop? Could we imagine a future were medical science progresses and death itself might be abolished altogether. No longer would mankind labour under death’s cool tyranny. Perhaps a great boon to humanity would follow. Perhaps a calamity.

-sir I’m trying to tell you something very important. Your wife she…

Perhaps a great boon, perhaps a calamity.