PERSPECTIVErnHow Thomas Rent the Seamless Garmentrnby Thomas Flemingrn”Nor will this Earth serve him; he sinkes the deepernwhere harmless fish monastique silence keepe,rnwho {were death dead) by roes of living sandrnmight spunge that element and make it land.”rn—John Donne, “Elegie on Mistris Bulstrode”rnI ohn Donne reminds us of a natural fact that most of usrnJ would rather forget: the necessity-of death. On this earth, lifernwithout death would be poetry without rhythm: limidess andrntherefore pointless. Without sex and death, life might havernevolved into one great superorganism, immortal as well as immoral,rnresembling the modern pantheists’ conception of Gaia,rnthe vast living eco-system and planetary consciousness of whichrneach human individual is but an infinitesimal part.rnDonne was no pantheist but a Christian whose respect forrnharmless fish would have been limited to their edibilit)- andrntheir symbolic utility as an anagram for lesous Christos TheosrnSoter. The proliferation of fish qua fish (or condors qua condors)rnhas little appeal for any Christian less tender-hearted thanrnSt. Francis, who preached sermons to birds and addressed thernfire that burned his flesh as “brother.”rn”Mere existence” of any kind, for the Christian, is never thernissue, though a fearful Samuel Johnson once declared that itrnwas “so much better than nothing, that one would rather existrneven in pain than not exist.” Death is central to the Christianrncreed: it is punishment for sin. Christ himself endured the tormentsrnof death in order to redeem mankind, and each of usrnmust die in order to gain eternal life.rnVerily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fallrninto the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, itrnbringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shallrnlose it; and he that hateth his life in this wodd shall keeprnit unto life eternal. (John 12:24-25)rnIt is death that makes life so precious. Even Adam and Eve,rnwithout knowing it, lived under the shadow of the death thatrnmight come to them if they rebelled against their creator, andrnsome sexless, deathless protoplasm that went on growingrnthroughout eternity would endure an existence without moralrnsignificance. It is the moral dimension of life that makes it sacredrnto the Christian. St. Thomas speaks of man’s rational lifernor soul as the quality distinguishing him from the beasts, andrnsome libertarian philosophers (e.g., Tibor Machan) have concludedrnthat it is reason that must be protected. Since unbornrnbabies and the mentally defective are no more rational thanrn10/CHRONICLESrnrnrn