Three young lads once rescued a famous politician from drowning. "I will give you anything you like," happily promised the grateful politician. "Thank you for saving my life!" The first lad said, "I'll take a bicycle." The second hero said, "I'll take a motor bike." The third perplexed rescuer said, "Sir, if it's all the same to you, I'd like a military funeral." "A military funeral! Why?" asked the politician. "Because," the boy said, "when my dad finds out whose life I saved, he'll kill me!"

Life is precious. Perhaps one way to define the goal of civilization is to say that we struggle together in the pursuit of life. Some psychiatrists are agreed that some people, for whatever reasons, are opposed to life and all the positive things it represents. Indeed, our present generation encoura…