The Associated Press article in the March 10 Augusta Chronicle, concerning the grand jury indictment of an assisted suicide network in Georgia, ended with an endorsement of assisted suicide by the alleged perpetrator. His testimony about how this criminal activity is "needed" requires a rebuttal.
In an era when baby-boomers are aging, and with the threat of government-sponsored health care nudging us toward deliberate choices against life, we need to speak up for the fragile elderly. They easily can become victims to suggestions that it is easier for their families and themselves if they shorten their lives. This age group is more susceptible to depression, which usually is treatable, and to diseases, which are treatable with palliative care.
Rather than helping them do away with themselves, we should help them realize we desire their wisdom and their company, whether they are "productive" or are not deemed to have a "good quality of life." It is our duty to provide for their needs, and to encourage them to age with dignity and love, not dignity and deliberate death.
The elderly have to the right to care for themselves just like every other American. If their family and friends won't take care of them then it isn't the responsibility of the taxpayer to take care of them. Allow social Darwinism to flourish and help repair the damage all of the ponzi schemed, financially bankrupt, entitlement programs have done to America's core.
It is interesting how people are quick to tell you how you should handle your affairs when they have no stake in the actual handling of those affairs.
My mother was charged by her the larger family with caring for her own mother. After all, that's what the girls do. She placed her in an assisted living facility where she had an apartment and friends to visit. When she was no longer able to handle that on her own, my Grandmother was placed in what was essentially a nursing home where she remained until her death a few years later. At one point she lamented to my mother wondering why God was doing this to her.
The extended family certainly had a LOT to say about that last decision. Their preference was that my mother bring my Grandmother into her home and personally care for her 24/7. Never mind that such a move would have bankrupted my mother. Of course, none of them offered any money to defray the costs nor did they offer to open their homes to my Granbmother so they could personally care for her 24/7.
Sometimes we say we "desire their wisdom and their company, whether they are "productive" or are not deemed to have a "good quality of life." Then we push them aside. The effect is to torture someone who has lived a long life and may well choose to go on to be with their spouse or other loved ones (as I have seen many express as a desire). Ultimately, the decision is a selfish one for our own gratification, not an act of love for someone who has cared and provided for us.
As mentioned in the previous post, the LTE is empty rhetoric offering no solutions or suggestions on how to accomplish the ideas set forth. While I am not specifically encouraging assisted suicide, but I also don't care much for such blanket statements that are an emotional appeal for self-gratification.
Make out the "power of attorney" and "Living Will" while you have the presence of mind to do so. If you love your family, do it. Do not wait. When you are no longer "rational in thought", you will not be aware of same. And the consequences are that the "government"and the courts will determine your financial demise. Take care of your business here and prepare for Heaven.
Ms. Espitallier says:
In an era when baby-boomers are aging . . . .
I hate to break it to her, but everyone is aging!
Government-sponsored health care is not "nudging us toward deliberate choices against life." Quite the opposite. Like abortion, end of life decisions are personal.
If you believe the government is the solution to all your problems and you should not be held accountable for your own decisions or actions, then it is time for "government intervention". If you believe you are responsible for yourself and the government, a.k.a. the taxpayers, should not be expected to bail you out everytime you make a poor choice, then you will work hard to provide for you and your family.
Everyone has the responsibility to work and save for their old age. Don't expect others to take care of you if you were blowing all your money throughout your life. Where did we get this idea that others should pay for the elderly?
strus4 says"Seniors who don't have relatives and unable to care for themselves are the responsibility of the state and anyone yapping about small government really don't care."
With BimbObamacare taking $500B from medicare, it is obvious the "govrnment" ain't gonna do much for the elderly whose population is growing at about 7000 a day with "baby boomers". Now that's what I call government (BimbObama) intervention.
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