The Gift Of Death

In The Gift of Death, Jacques Derrida's most sustained consideration of religion to date, he continues to explore questions introduced in Given Time about the limits of the rational and responsible that one reaches in granting or accepting death, whether by sacrifice, murder, execution, or suicide. Derrida analyzes Patocka's Heretical Essays on the History of Philosophy and develops and compares his ideas to the works of Heidegger, Levinas, and Kierkegaard. A major work, The Gift of Death resonates with much of Derrida's earlier writing and will be of interest to scholars in anthropology, philosophy, and literary criticism, along with scholars of ethics and religion. "The Gift of Death is Derrida's long-awaited deconstruction of the foundations of the project of a philosophical ethics, and it will long be regarded as one of the most significant of his many writings."—Choice "An important contribution to the critical study of ethics that commends itself to philosophers, social scientists, scholars of relgion . . . [and those] made curious by the controversy that so often attends Derrida."—Booklist "Derrida stares death in the face in this dense but rewarding inquiry. . . . Provocative."—Publishers Weekly

Translator's preface to the 2007 edition -- The gift of death -- Secrets of European responsibility -- Beyond : giving for the taking, teaching and learning to give, death -- Whom to give to (knowing not to know) -- Tout autre est tout autre -- Literature in secret : an impossible filiation -- The test of secrecy : for the one as for the other -- Father, son, and literature -- More than one

Few Canadians know of "Mr. L," an auto worker in Ontario who gave "the gift of life" in 1984 as part of a company blood donor drive. Many more will remember Kenneth Pittman, a 53-year-old heart patient, who died after being infected with AIDS -- from Mr. L's blood. They will also remember Mr. Pittman's wife, Rochelle, who contracted the virus from her husband because his doctor decided not to inform them of Mr. Pittman's fatal disease. This tragic story is a microcosm of Canada's blood scandal. For over a decade, bureaucratic dithering, profits-over-protection responses, a paternalistic medical establishment and uninformed victims combined to create the worst health-care disaster in Canadian history. More than 1,200 people have contracted AIDS from tainted blood -- and the dying continues. André Picard has produced the definitive analysis of this complex tragedy. All of the players are here -- public health officials who refused to take the "homosexual plague" seriously; the Red Cross, which worried about bad publicity and the bottom line; the too-little-too-late government that offered inadequate compensation for victims; and the arrogant medical establishment which sometimes took years to inform HIV patients of their condition; and most of all, the victims, who are paying for this betrayal with their lives. The Gift of Death is a call for a serious re-evaluation of an outdated blood system to ensure that a similar tragedy never occurs.

With a loving memory for my twin flame, a soul that has co-evolved with me through many lifetimes. His death has been the greatest gift of all. 18 weeks after my twin flame's departure from his body, the story of our souls' journey has come to a complete cycle of remembering and reunion. The writing of this book has been in conception through the spiritual adventure he took me through after his death, accelerating my soul evolution with the dizzy speed of spiritual experience, understanding and knowing. Before his death, the only spiritual concepts that I knew were past life regression and Akashic record. After his death, I encountered and experienced many other concepts, from after death communication, embodiment, life between lives, soulmate, soul family, life review, karmic relationship, psychic vision, precognitive dreams, soul communication through dream, channeling, meeting my spirit guide, etc. to the ultimate phenomenon that brought us to reunite again in one life time: twin flame and the concept of split incarnation. After meeting his soul again in another parallel body, it took me a while to process what journey I should take and what choice I should make from now onward. This entire spiritual journey has uplifted my perspective about the nature of love, life and death beyond what we assume them to be from our human's perception. It is time that I pass on the most loving gift he gave to me, using his own death, to people who are attracted to this book for its vibration. It is the gift of spiritual understanding about the nature of life and death. Most important of all, it is the deepest knowledge that love is eternal and all that is. In this book, I simply recorded my experience in this relationship before, during and after his death, weaving in all the reading knowledge that he brought me to through this journey. These readings helped to enhance my insights and the spiritual meaning of each twist and turn. What I wrote in this book is my own Truth that has become an inner Light guiding my way. It might be the same or different from what were taught in various religious or spiritual believes and practices. If this book finds its way to you, maybe some of the messages are the answers that you have been seeking for, reflecting your past experience. If this book finds its way to you but didn't leave any strong impression, it may plant the seed of knowledge that only springs up in your mind for a future event. Whatever forms it takes, what sticks to you is the Truth for you.I recorded my own insights from this extraordinary spiritual journey as The Essence of Death, Life and Love, with an intention to provide healing for people who are parted with their loved ones by Death. It helps us reframe our grief and see our pain from another perspective, seeking spiritual meaning for each event and relationships in our life. We are all here to learn and grow spiritually, and the ultimate purpose of love is the spiritual evolution of our beloved.

Charles Allen, loving husband and father in a family of eight, shares his personal experience of conquering the heartache and tragedy of losing two children to cystic fibrosis, and both his oldest daughter and wife to cancer. Through the details of Allen’s experiences of coping with the loss of four family members, it becomes clear how tragedy can become a powerful source of personal growth and how faith plays an important role in the trials and tribulations of life. Allen’s mourning culminates with the selfless gift given to him by his wife, Sue, as she struggles with her last breath. Through touching personal journal entries and revealing narrative, The Gift chronicles one man’s struggles with, and triumph over, loss and grief.

This book is an attempt to defend the undefendable: the suicide bomber as a figure of thinking, a figure that foregrounds the singularity of each event; and it is this un-understandability-which is part of understanding itself-that the suicide bomber never lets us forget. For, the suicide bomber is the poet par excellence, reminding us of the possibility of an event; not because of the effects of her actions, but due to the gift of her life, and more importantly the unknowability that is her death. And like with poetry, all analysis only makes it worse. In this manner, (s)he remains an unending question for us; a question that even questions itself as a question. And if one maintains the question, one is always already other to everything, other even to one's self. In this way, the gap between the self and the other is maintained such that this space is never taken hostage. For, the moment this space of negotiation is gone, we are in the realm of terror.

Matchbook consists of nine essays written around, or in response to, work published by Jacques Derrida since 1980. The focal point of the essays is the "Envois," which forms part of Derrida's Post Card. Particular attention is paid to how that text articulates with the ethical and political emphases of Derrida's more recent work, but also to its autobiographical conceit. The "incendiary" reference of the book's title underscores deconstruction's engagement with questions of reading: relations between (slow) reading and the speed of technology, and the political effects of an internationalized deconstruction in a globalized culture. It is in terms of what deconstruction can have us think about the speed of technology and technologies of reading that Derrida's work has made one of its most important contributions to philosophy and literary and cultural studies. The book concentrates on that as proof of the continued relevance of such work.

In this moving and compassionate classic—now updated with new material from the authors—hospice nurses Maggie Callanan and Patricia Kelley share their intimate experiences with patients at the end of life, drawn from more than twenty years’ experience tending the terminally ill. Through their stories we come to appreciate the near-miraculous ways in which the dying communicate their needs, reveal their feelings, and even choreograph their own final moments; we also discover the gifts—of wisdom, faith, and love—that the dying leave for the living to share. Filled with practical advice on responding to the requests of the dying and helping them prepare emotionally and spiritually for death, Final Gifts shows how we can help the dying person live fully to the very end.