• Obituary -- Tales Of The Dead By Lakhinder Bhatia, M.D. (Dr. Bhatia is a staff physician at Webster County Hospital in Webster anes are less distinct. One Springs.) WEBSTER SPRINGS, WEST VIRGINIA, MAY 3 .: Fortunately, America society I There is always a minority whom » w . v , * M _.v~-~~ «-_^ wv „ L n e r e 1S aiways a minority WIIOIII more transparent and class bound- you can never satisfy. Less successful An obituary is a notice of newspaper even when death. I was surprised ind out how many people read the obituary section of the newspaper. To v _ _ _ physicians complain about an obitu ?^!^ ary of their competitors in bygone life who were more famous than them. To i American and worse still, in some the living it is glorifying the dead When some pragmatists advocated asfcs, downright anti-American can predict with a fair amount of I my surprise almost half the readers fidence that when the time • admitted to reading the obituary co umn on a regular basis. The older reader, the more likely he or she is I read the obituary section. In a sms town virtually everyone finds son compromise that obituaries should be down to size so that more could be i for Fidel Castro, the American media published in the journal, many cried his obituary foul and wanted well-elaborated bio ! Will it be an obituary with "grudging graphical sketches including pho- space in the obituary list. It is pitiable Gaddafy will be treated. If obituaries that during the lifetime of an indi vidual no one seemed to care, but Colonel justifiably has the dubious upon his death, the whole town came distinction of being No profession takes an obituary The admiration" or venom, I honestly do tograpli. Somedoctorsthinkobituaries know. I am sure how Colonel ^ more interesting than poor quality research papers. The idea of a drug company-sponsored obituary is hor- i are important historical records, the mourn his or her passing away. In ibly absurd i a big city only the influential and more seriously than doctors powerful find a place in the obituary British Medical Journal has an obitu list. It is almost an honor. It also ^ editor solely for compiling and writing obituaries ofphysicians. There is a three to five month waiting period before an obituary is published and only less than half make it in the list. Although the dead do plain, their living friends do. Most vocal and retired doctors who v k To write an obituary is not an easy task fact to write anything of substance is not an easy work It depends upon the political views of the deceased. After all, who will publish a biographical sketch of an [ unknown entity if the person was not - politician? obituary I learned the politics of obituaries nnr rnm many years ago when I was in Lon don. I was a young trainee physiciai and worked in a politically sensitiv< hospital. You were either a Tory or J Laborite, just as we are in this count; - a Republican or a Democrat, irre check every of the medical requires time andtimelyresearch. It has to be factual. A self-written obituary would be less time consum- ing and more accurate. I find an obituary more interesting if it is written wittily. Since everyone is not a born writer, I am not sure how a self-writter obituary would be more interesting w v-j aouv ux u.v ,..w.v,«* , un i ess j t was written by a ghost journal tofindout which one of them T _____ nnrn * ***-»_»,_ «*w, has been bumped off. The reputed medical journal J A M A has an obitu- ary list every week. It is like a I came across a self obituary which read, "Peter was \ rebellion of the time and did not conform to routine. H e was very much his o w n man. A s a successful another physician "David, did you finally made it to the end. For some transplant surgeon, he was G o d to his ^am i a L_ * * *__.*._-_ 111 -.-lit n _h_rL ,-+ /-_*-_. #_r^ A* ft /~* J 1 spective of your belief in democracy, graduation party for those who have One day I overheard my chief talking see Sir John's obituary in The Sunday immortality physicians it is an ultimate step patients God was not amused Times? Tragically i he Daily Telegraph , the doctor re- w ith extreme seriousness and absur plied They were talking about distinguished physician friend who had died. The content of their conver- sation implied that the deceased was conservative enough to deserve Peter's self-eulogy. After Peter's death British doctors treat their obituaries he was reminded, "Well doctor, I don't care what you did on planet earth but dity apart with some degree of ec- around here there is only one God. centricity. Although the medical And that is Me profession has a compulsory Medical j . •• Registerof physicians, in their it historical record. For many few kind words in The Daily Tele- an obituary is an important historical graph, a conservative newspaper. In record wh i c h also provides us infor- other words, even in death people did not spare Sir John for having different ideas which were not shared by the mainstream establishment. In England s almost class consciousness the changes and attitude of the profession of the
