What is Death?

From an editorial by Bishop John Shelby Spong on Tikkun.org.

"Is death a natural and normal part of the life process that needs to be embraced? Is it the ultimate enemy that needs to be defeated as St. Paul suggests or the ultimate punishment for sin as the creation story implies?

"Is there a point where science and medical technology cease expanding life and begin only to postpone death? Can that point be identified and accepted? Is it not true that this debate would never have arisen a century ago because the choices we can make today were not options for our grandparents? Patients, now kept alive by extraordinary means, would have simply died in the past. When the evangelical minister on CNN said that we should not interfere with 'the natural course of life,' he did not recognize that modern medicine is designed to do just that. If we let nature take its course, the average life expectancy would still be 30 or so years. One cannot have it both ways with any rational consistency. I rejoice in expanded life. I grieve when medicine is used only to postpone death. I do not believe that a breathing cadaver is a living self.

"

Thank you, Bishop.