Death with dignity?

P.J. O'Rourke contemplates the nature of God, death, and dignity in a remarkable article in the Los Angeles Times (read it here). He wonders, "Why can't death--if we must have it--be always glorious, as in The Iliad?" O'Rourke complains that his recent diagnosis rankles in comparison with more dignified diseases: "I am a logical, sensible, pragmatic Republican, and my diagnosis came just weeks after Teddy Kennedy's. That he should have cancer of the brain, and I should have cancer of the ass...well, I'll say a rosary for him and hope he has a laugh at me. After all, what would I do, ask God for a more dignified cancer?"