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LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 29 June 2008 Issue

There is a common notion that human beings often survive life or death and even emergency situations because of the so-called ‘adrenaline rush’. It is a situation where the processes in the human anatomy automatically react or respond to a given situation which the mind perceives to be critical.

In science, adrenaline, or epinephrine, is a hormone produced by the adrenal gland found directly above the kidney of the human body. They say that when adrenaline is secreted into the bloodstream, the hormone prepares the body for action by boosting the supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles while reducing considerably non-emergency processes in the body like that of digestion. Short bursts of physical prowess results from dilated blood vessels and air passages that makes the body pass more blood to the muscles as more oxygen are put in into the lungs in a timely and precise manner.

They say that the discovery of the adrenaline as a substance produced by the adrenal gland was first reported in May 1886 by American physician William Bates in the New York Medical Journal. It  was Napoleon Cybulski, a Polish physiologist and a pioneer of endocrinology, who isolated and identified the substance in 1895. German chemist Friedrich Stolz, however, was the first person to synthesize the hormone artificially in 1904.

Since the hormone causes an increase in heart rate and stroke volume, constricts the small blood vessels in the skin but dilates the arterioles in skeletal muscles, the pupils and air passages, starts the breakdown of lipids in fat cells, elevates blood sugar and suppresses the immune system, they say that it is important to douse the adrenaline released in the human system after a stressful situation. Before, this is done naturally because man is habitualy engaged in a lot of physical activity. But in today’s world where human exertion is less, the amount of adrenaline left in the body results in insomnia, palpitations, high blood pressure, and restive nerves.
 
In 1915, American physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon theorized the so-called ‘fight-or-flight’ response by holding that animals react to threats through a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system that prepares the animals either to flee or to fight. And they say that this response system was later recognized as the first stage of a general adaptation syndrome which regulates stress reaction among vertebrates and other organisms. Thus, the ‘fight-or-flight’ response is often used to characterize the situation known as adrenaline rush.

To be sure there is always the adrenaline that serves as a lifeline in every severe and extemporaneous situation man is confronted with. But summoning the aid and comfort of this hormone in normal times would only mean stress, a condition that produces unneeded bodily strain and causes much of the physical maladies and human ailments known in today’s world.  Unfortunately, this is how nature works.

If human beings would only heed this law of nature, they would realize that life is all about perfecting or working for that state of constant peace and tranquility in this hectic, fast-paced and crazier world. And it is all because everyone has this adrenaline that rushes automatically in times of great need. 

Reality dictates that putting the adrenaline to work unnecessarily could spell the end of life.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale’, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Times) – 6 April 2008 Issue

Oftentimes, it takes death to know how a person lived. 

It was Easter Sunday, March 23, when a major television channel reported that two young ladies met a fatal car accident along C-5 that morning on their way to hear an early morning mass after a day’s work in an airline company.

One of the fatalities is Abigael Encarnacion Parong, a young lass who just earned her degree in Legal Management in Ateneo de Manila University in 2007. Her companion in that tragic accident was Kristine Marie Oroqueta.

Abegael lived a normal life as a child and a young adult except that she exuded creative intelligence, a deep Christian faith, athletic talents and diligence. She was always a source of joy to her parents Lyn and Lito, sibling Paolo, relatives and friends. All those who knew her would remember her for the very distinct sweet smile she always carried on her amiable face that invited enduring friendship even to people who were not personally close to her.

She was one person who simply loves to love people. It is precisely for this reason obviously that she dedicated a good part of her youth working as an active volunteer of Gawad Kalinga to help build poor communities in Nueva Ecija and Payatas, Quezon City because she truly shared the vision of ending slums, violence and poverty in the country in her own modest ways.

During her graduation rites, Jesuit priest and Ateneo president, Bienvenido F. Nebres, who personally took time out from his busy schedule to celebrate a funeral mass for Abegael, was quoted as referring to her as an example of living a happy and a meaningful life as an Atenean who was a friend to all. Like others, Fr. Nebres also remembers her for her distinct sweet smile. 

No wonder Abigael’s friends fondly called her “Angel”. Perhaps, it was no mere coincidence when her late paternal grandfather ordered her parents to use “EL” instead of “IL” as the last two letters of her name. “EL” stands for God in the biblical jargon. Abigael’s lifetime was indeed an epitome of the presence of God every step of the way.

Family, relatives and friends who attended her funeral were surprised with the herd of people who paid their last respects for Abigael, many of whom they do not even know. But apparently with their show of grief, she touched their lives too in simple ways one way or the other.

Her uncle, Danny Dula, even remarked that the internment seems to be her premiere night if it were in the movies. Her aunt, Cora Encarnacion, said that they knew only of the purposeful life Abegail lived with her untimely death. All the attention, respect and the little stories shared about her goodness were surely a source of great consolation to her family that she did not leave this earth in vain even if it was short-lived.

Abegael did not die as a heroine or a public figure or a celebrity. The quality of life that she lived would not even deserve media attention other than the fact that her death was tragic.

There is this philosophical story that when a person is born everyone around is happy and proud to welcome the newly born as the baby cries out loud to his or her lungs content maybe in anticipation of living in a cruel world.  But when a person dies, it should be that mourners cry bereaving the loss of the person who touched their lives as his or her soul looks at them with gladness and peace from somewhere beyond. For sure though, the extent and degree of the grief of the mourners measure the kind of life that the dead lived.

There are countless of Abegaels who lived and passed this world quietly. Their memories would obviously live in the hearts of the people they touched. Abegael’s passing is a reminder that there is a great sense for every human being to live a life of meaning to and for others.

The death of Abegael and all those of her breed defined their lives. Certainly, they were earth’s loss. But come to think of it, human beings like Abegael are heaven’s gain.

A person in contemplation of death may execute his own will, without need of lawyer’s assistance and the other formalities of a testament provided it is entirely written, dated and signed by the hand of the testator himself [Art. 810]. Under the Civil Code of the Philippines (R. A. 386 – approved: 18 June 1949), this is known as ‘holographic will’. It is subject to no other form, may be made in or out of the Philippines, and need not be witnessed.

LINK: ‘Note Verbale‘, Manila Times (Sunday-Career Section) - 4 November 2007 Issue

The month of November begins with the commemoration of the departed.

Sooner or later those who remember would also have their time to be remembered.  True enough because “No One Here Gets Out Alive”, so goes the title of the book written by journalist Jerry Hopkins on the life of James “Jim” Morrison, a charismatic and iconic American rock singer.

Death has been defined as the permanent end of life of a biological organism. Medically, death can be ‘clinical’, or the moment when the individual stops to breathe and his or her heart ceases to beat. Or it can also be ‘biological’, or when the electrical activity in the brain stops indicating a permanent end of consciousness. 

Modern science has found a way to revive back to life clinical deaths through defibrillation, life support devices, artificial pacemakers and even organ transplants. In brain or ‘biological’ death, getting back to life would almost be a miracle because it normally involves the irreversible loss of the person’s cognitive functions inclusive of the human thought and personality.

In America, the death of a person is legally determined following “The Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA)”, a draft state law that was approved in 1980 by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, in cooperation with the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, and the President’s Commission on Medical Ethics, and widely adopted by most US states to provide a comprehensive and medically sound basis for determining death in all situations.

The three-section Act provides: “An individual who has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead.”

In 2005, the case of Theresa Marie “Terri” Schiavo of Florida, who for fifteen years of persistent vegetative state became dependent on a artificial life sustenance after suffering from severe brain damage due to a respiratory and cardiac arrest in 1990, hugged international limelight. Whether or not Terri should be allowed to die or kept to live became of the center of a unique political and judicial controversy in the United States.

Eventually, the decision of Judge George W. Greer of the Pinellas-Pasco County Circuit Court in Clearwater, Florida to have the feeding tubes of Terri removed prevailed. And apparently, the court’s decision was anchored on Terri’s wish not to continue with her life-prolonging measures.  But for pro-life advocates, Terri’s death was a case of ‘judicial murder’.

Coincidentally, Judge Greer and rock star Jim Morrison were for a time roommates while studying at the Florida State University.

The sufferings of Terri and all others who are terminally ill could provide the legal justification that the right to die is as much an option and deserves respect as the right to life. 

But regardless of the legal, moral, scientific and philosophical dimensions, death would always remain to be mystical event in human existence. Despite the continuing advancement in medical science, no one knows for sure when death will come, how one’s life will end and what exactly happens after life. Death is as mysterious as the origin of life. As they say, it is like a thief in the night.

Death is also the end of one’s human drama. “Life is a stage and all of us are mere players upon it”, said William Shakespeare. Every individual can rightfully choose to close his or her curtain on a happy or a sad note. But the choice should be done during one’s lifetime because that is how the departed would be remembered in times like All Soul’s Day.

“There are only two kinds of person in this world who deserve a royal treatment, the monarch and a dying person.” – JNS (26 July 2006)