We are living in a time of war on multiple fronts. This is as true
metaphorically as it is geographically. In particular, we live in an age
in which war has been declared against disease, and war has been declared
against terror. This essay considers in tandem the costs of those
wars—more precisely, the costs of those metaphors of war.The author gratefully acknowledges contributions
to this paper from conversations at a colloquium of the
“town-gown” medical ethics discussion group at Indiana
University's Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American
Institutions, with special thanks to Richard Miller (Poynter Center
director), Jennifer Girod, Caitlin Kelly, Gates Agnew, and Byron Bangert,
and from conversations at Tokyo University's 21st Century COE Project
for Death and Life Studies, with special thanks to Susumu Shimazono and
Miyako Takahashi.