The fact that I’m getting down-voted means I guess people feel that I’m criticizing the legalization of assisted suicide.
It’s possible to believe that assisted suicide should be legal and also believe that it’s incredibly bleak that people are so hopeless. Remember when this started we were talking about how it’s not humane to force someone to say drown own their own liquefying lungs or something. Now our society is apparently going to a place where people would rather quit living than go on after their spouse has passed. How did we get here?
But it’s not about hopelessness. It’s about coming to terms with having lived a full life and being fully ready for a dignified end of it. My girlfriend works in a Dutch nursing home and has had the privilege of assisting a couple of euthanasia tracts for the elderly, and she says it’s one of the most magnificent things she was able to do for someone, emotionally speaking. People are very clear about the reasons (which have to be not only discussed, but thoroughly vetted by 2 doctors) and do not make this decision lightly. These is a very high level of clear communication between the family, doctors and patients about all relevant aspects for everyone involved.
I think when you and I reach that age, we will have very different thoughts on life and death.
You are assuming that living without their spouse is a better option. If they are already old then what is the point of living a few more years if most of it will be in mourning?
You raise a valid point. The social fabric in our society is ripped in such a way that old people often feel “left over” whereas in other societies they remain an integral part and can still have meaningful interactions, where they feel able to provide to society and be respected for it.
The combination of ever getting older thanks to modern medicine, but at the same time being ever irrelevant, seems more of a curse than a blessing.
The social fabric in our society is ripped in such a way that old people often feel “left over” whereas in other societies they remain an integral part and can still have meaningful interactions, where they feel able to provide to society and be respected for it.
Western Societies have now been bombarded by incessant neoliberal propaganda for decades. A lot of that propaganda takes the divide and conquer approach to make cutbacks to social security and workers’ rights palatable to the public. One day it’s the unemployed who are at fault for cutbacks to pensions, the next day it’s the pensioners who are too expensive to finance proper unemployment benefits. This has been going on and on for decades, with ever changing marginalised groups being played against each other. Meanwhile boundless egotism and individualism has been lauded as the ultimate life goal of “freedom”.
The result of this is a society of egomaniacs who are only looking out for themselves and hate arbitrary people for being in the arbitrary drawer they have been stuffed into by the currently prevalent propaganda.
The fact that I’m getting down-voted means I guess people feel that I’m criticizing the legalization of assisted suicide.
It’s possible to believe that assisted suicide should be legal and also believe that it’s incredibly bleak that people are so hopeless. Remember when this started we were talking about how it’s not humane to force someone to say drown own their own liquefying lungs or something. Now our society is apparently going to a place where people would rather quit living than go on after their spouse has passed. How did we get here?
But it’s not about hopelessness. It’s about coming to terms with having lived a full life and being fully ready for a dignified end of it. My girlfriend works in a Dutch nursing home and has had the privilege of assisting a couple of euthanasia tracts for the elderly, and she says it’s one of the most magnificent things she was able to do for someone, emotionally speaking. People are very clear about the reasons (which have to be not only discussed, but thoroughly vetted by 2 doctors) and do not make this decision lightly. These is a very high level of clear communication between the family, doctors and patients about all relevant aspects for everyone involved.
I think when you and I reach that age, we will have very different thoughts on life and death.
You are assuming that living without their spouse is a better option. If they are already old then what is the point of living a few more years if most of it will be in mourning?
You raise a valid point. The social fabric in our society is ripped in such a way that old people often feel “left over” whereas in other societies they remain an integral part and can still have meaningful interactions, where they feel able to provide to society and be respected for it.
The combination of ever getting older thanks to modern medicine, but at the same time being ever irrelevant, seems more of a curse than a blessing.
Western Societies have now been bombarded by incessant neoliberal propaganda for decades. A lot of that propaganda takes the divide and conquer approach to make cutbacks to social security and workers’ rights palatable to the public. One day it’s the unemployed who are at fault for cutbacks to pensions, the next day it’s the pensioners who are too expensive to finance proper unemployment benefits. This has been going on and on for decades, with ever changing marginalised groups being played against each other. Meanwhile boundless egotism and individualism has been lauded as the ultimate life goal of “freedom”.
The result of this is a society of egomaniacs who are only looking out for themselves and hate arbitrary people for being in the arbitrary drawer they have been stuffed into by the currently prevalent propaganda.