"Heinlein, Robert A - I Will Fear No Evil v1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

"Really? What a dreadful idea. How much does this person charge for such a job?"
"Plenty. Depends on difficulty and how much chance he runs of being prosecuted. Never less than a couple of thousand and then up like a kite. But he can do it."
"Well!" Eunice looked thoughtful, then smiled. "Mr. Salomon, if you ever decide that you must have such a picture of me, phone me for a competitive bid. My husband has an excellent Chinese camera and I would rather have him photograph me in my bath than some stranger."
"Order, please," Smith said mildly. "Eunice, if you want to sell skin pictures to that old lecher, do it on your own time. I don't know anything about these gadgets but I know how to solve this. Eunice, go out to where they telemeter me-I think it's next door in what used to be my upstairs lounge. You'll find Miss MacIntosh there. Hang around three minutes. I'll wait two minutes; then I'll call out: Miss Macintosh! Is Mrs. Branca there?' If you hear me, we'll know she's snooping. If you don't, come back at the end of three minutes."
"Yes, sir. Do I give Miss MacIntosh any reason for this?"
"Give the old battle-ax any stall you like. I simply want to know if she is eavesdropping."
"Yes, sir." Eunice started to leave the room. She pressed the door switch just as its buzzer sounded. The door snapped aside, revealing Miss MacIntosh, who jumped in surprise.
The nurse recovered and said bleakly, to Mr. Smith, "May 1 come in for a moment?"
"Certainly."
"Thank you, sir." The nurse went to the bed, pulled its screen aside, touched four switches on its console, replaced the screen. Then she planted herself in front of her patient and said, "Now you have complete privacy, so far as my equipment is concerned. Sir."
"Thank you."
"I am not supposed to cut the voice monitors except on Doctor's orders. But you had privacy anyhow. I am as bound to respect a patient's privacy as .a doctor is, I never listen to sickroom conversation. I don't even hear it! Sir."
"Get your feathers down. If you weren't listening, how did you know we were discussing the matter?"
"Oh! Because my name was mentioned. Hearing my name triggers me to listen. It's a conditioned reflex. Though I don't suppose you believe me?"
"On the contrary, I do. Nurse-please switch on whatever you switched off. Then bear in mind that I must talk privately...and I'll remember not to mention your name. But I'm glad to know that I can reach you so promptly. To a man in my condition that is a comfort."
"Uh-very well, sir."
"And I want to thank you for putting up with my quirks. And bad temper."
She almost smiled. "Oh, you're not so difficult, sir. I once put in two years in an N.P. hospital."
Smith looked startled, then grinned. "Touchщ! Was that where you acquired your hatred for bedpans?"
"It was indeed! Now if you will excuse me, sir-"
When she was gone, Salomon said, "You really think she won't listen?"
"Of course she will, she can't help it, she's already triggered and will be trying too hard not to listen. But she's proud, Jake, and I would rather depend on pride than gadgetry. Okay, I'm getting tired, so here it is in a lump. I want to buy a body. A young one."
Eunice Branca barely showed reaction; Jake Salomon's features dropped into the mask he used for poker and district attorneys. Presently Eunice said, "Am I to record, sir?"
"No. Oh, hell, yes. Tell that sewing machine to make one copy for each of us and wipe the tape. File mine in my destruct file; file yours in your destruct file-and, Jake, hide your copy in the file you use to outwit the Infernal Revenue Service."
"I'll file it in the still safer place I use for guilty clients. Johann, anything you say to me is privileged but I am bound to point out that the Canons forbid me to advise a client in how to break the law, or to permit a client to discuss such intention. As for Eunice, anything you say to her or in her presence is not privileged."
"Oh, come off it, you old shyster; you've advised me in how to break the law twice a week for years. As for Eunice, nobody can get anything out of, her short of all-out brainwash."
"I didn't say I always followed the Canons; I merely told you what they called for. I won't deny that my professional ethics have a little stretch in them-but I won't be party to anything smelling of bodysnatching, kidnapping, or congress with slavery. Any self-respecting prostitute-meaning me-has limits."
"Spare me the sermon, Jake; what I want is both moral and ethical. I need your help to see that all of it is legal-utterly legal, can't cut corners on this!-and practical."
"I hope so."
"I know so. I said I wanted to buy a body-legally. That rules out bodysnatching, kidnapping, and slavery. I want to make a legal purchase."
"You can't."
"Why not? Take this body," Smith said, pointing to his chest, "it's not worth much even as manure; nevertheless I can will it to a medical school. You know I can, you okayed it."
"Oh. Let's get our terms straight. In. the United States there can be no chattel ownership of a human being. Thirteenth Amendment. Therefore your body is not your property because you can't sell it. But a cadaver is property-usually of the estate of the deceased although a cadaver is not often treated the way other chattels are treated. But it is indeed property. If you want to buy a cadaver, it can be arranged-but who were you calling a ghoul earlier?"
"What is a cadaver, Jake?"
"Eh? A dead body, usually of a human. So says Webster. The legal definition is more complicated but comes to the same thing."
"It's that 'more complicated' aspect I'm getting at. Okay, once it is dead, it is property and maybe we can buy it. But what is 'death,' Jake, and when does it take place? Never mind Webster; what is the law?"
"Oh. Law is what the Supreme Court says it is. Fortunately this point was nailed down in the seventies-'Estate of Henry M. Parsons v. Rhode Island.'
For years, many centuries, a man was dead when his heart quit beating. Then for about a century he was dead when a licensed M.D. examined him for heart condition action and respiration and certified that he was dead-and sometimes that turned out grisly, as doctors do make mistakes. And then along came the first heart transplant and oh, mother, what a legal snarl that stirred up!
"But the Parsons case sealed it; a man is dead when all brain activity has stopped, permanently,"
"And what does that mean?" Smith persisted.
"The Court declined to define it. But in application- look, Johann, I'm a corporation lawyer, not a specialist in medical jurisprudence nor in forensic medicine-and I would have to research before I-"
"Okay, so you're not God. You can revise your remarks later. What do you know now?"
"When the exact moment of death is important, as it sometimes is in estate cases, as it often is in accident, manslaughter, and murder cases, as it always is in an organ, transplant case, some doctor determines that the brain has quit and isn't going to start up again. They use various tests and talk about 'irreversible coma' and 'complete absence of brain wave activity' and 'cortical damage beyond possibility of repair' but it all comes down to some M.D. laying his reputation and license on the line to certify that this brain is dead and won't come alive again. Heart and lungs are now irrelevant; they are classed with hands and feet and gonads and other parts that a man can do without or have replaced. It's the brain that counts. Plus a doctor's opinion about the brain. In transplant cases there are almost always at least two doctors in no way connected with the operation and probably a coroner as well. Not because the Supreme Court requires it-in fact only a few of the fifty-four states have legislated in re thanatotic requirements-but-"
"Just a moment, Mr. Salomon-that odd word. My typewriter has placed a query after it." Eunice kept her hand over the "Hold" light.
"How did your typer spell it?"
"T-H-A-N-A-T-O-T-I-C."
"Smart machine. It's the technical adjective referring to death. From the Greek god Thanatos, Death."
"Half a second while I tell it so." Eunice touched the "Memory" switch with her other hand, whispered briefly, then said, "It feels better if I reassure it at once. Go ahead." She lifted her hand from the "Hold" light.
"Eunice, are you under the impression that that machine is alive?"
She blushed, then touched "Erase" and covered "Hold."