ABSTRACT
Modern privatization of death comes together with the privatization of life. Death as such is inevitable; but each concrete instance of death is contingent. All deaths have causes, each death has a cause, each particular death has its particular cause. The cause is found: blood clot, kidney failure, haemorrhage, heart arrest, lung collapse. The cause of instrumental rationality celebrates more triumphant battles – and in the din of festivities the news of the lost war is inaudible. Doctors are like attorneys who lose cases and are thus forced to face up to the limit of their own powers. ’ A lost court case does not put in question the importance and the competence of lawyers; at worst, it may cast shadow on the skills of a particular barrister. The horror of mortality has been sliced into thin rashers of fearful, yet curable afflictions; they can be fit neatly into every nook and cranny of life.
