Dying wish to be Demi.

People have always been fascinated with the idea of a dying wish. It's become a staple of our movies, subject matter for countless books. How many times have we watched teary-eyed as a patient on their deathbed utters their last words? The resonance of the last wish is probably the reason, besides the utter brilliance of Randy Pausch, that a last lecture by a professor became one of the most successful youtube videos of all time.

Maybe, we all feel that in these last moments of life, there's some higher understanding of what it all means, some discovery of what life is really about. Perhaps, that's why I look at the story of Lisa Connell and I can't help but be saddened by it. Lisa Conell's last wish is to die beautiful. In an attempt to fulfill this wish, the terminally ill, Lisa Connell is spending £40,000 on plastic surgery to look like Demi Moore. In the next couple of weeks, Lisa will undergo liposuction, a breast enhancement and eyebrow lift, plus work on her skin and teeth.

In her own words:

“I’ve always dreamed of looking like Demi Moore and I’m determined that when I die I will,” she said. She added: “People think I’m crazy for wanting to do this, but I know it will make my last months or years happier. I want to die beautiful. This is my way of getting the control back in my life.”

Lisa was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumor at age 27. The tumor has caused her to lose sight in her left eye, an eye that is now starting to droop. While Lisa continues to do charitable work for cancer patients, even setting up a website to raise money for those afflicted with brain tumors,www.rentadate forcharity.com, where people can bid for dates with celebrities backing her cause, this work is not enough to fulfill her. As the news about her brain tumor became dire, Lisa began to feel that the only thing that will actually make her happy is plastic surgery.

It's not my place, to begrudge someone their dying wish. Lisa seems like a very kind person, one whose done some great things for others. I have no idea how I would feel if I was in her place, and I admit I'm projecting here, but I can't help being bothered by this story. Not for what it says about Lisa, but for what it says about the world we live in, a world where physical beauty is what determines worth.

What does it say about our society, when a woman's last wish is to die looking like somebody else? And what does it say when the celebrity that this women idolizes has gone through £250,000 worth of plastic surgery herself. Is it wrong to want to be beautiful, or to have to buy that beauty? We all try to buy beauty in small ways everyday. But there's something off-putting about an ideal so distanced from the reality of what real women look like, and what, in my opinion, real women should look like , that striving for it only makes the rest of us feel like failures. Lisa is a pretty woman, even more importantly, she seems like e a good person, who has so much to be confident about, so much that she's accomplished in her last days. But, she'll make headlines for this last wish to be Demi.

According to Lisa, surgery will give her confidence and a new lease on life, it will allow her to " die a happy women. happy and beautiful." For me, there's something very sad in the fact that one can't exist without the other. Either way, I hope she does find happiness.