Towards the end of my conversation with Ezekiel Emanuel he says, “I better go, they’re going to shoot me otherwise.” He means his colleagues who are waiting for his next meeting. Emanuel trained as an oncologist and now has a role as a senior medical adviser in the United States; he was an architect of Obamacare and has repeatedly worked in the White House for presidents Obama and Biden, most lately on Covid policy.
But in the context of our chat his wording adds a tang of menace. “Zeke”, as he is known, is influential in many ways, but his work that starts the most arguments is an essay entitled “Why I want to die at 75”. It’s not just that he hopes “to die
