When President Warren Harding died suddenly, making Calvin Coolidge president of the
United States, several reporters came to Will Rogers asking for his reaction. He is reputed
to have responded, "How can they tell?" While his response seems a bit harsh and
insensitive, there does seem to be truth to the observations that the margin between life
and death seems hard to detect in some cases. Certainly in the biological, as well as the
spiritual, it is growing increasingly hard to draw the line between life and death -- last
breath, one heart beat away, brain death, take your pick.
