Cristina Odone has what some may call a thought-provoking article in the Telegraph, the topic of which is assisted suicide, in which she would appear to not understand those that opt to take their own lives - and writes:
"People are opting out of ageing just as research shows that, surprisingly, most old people are more contented in their final years than at any other time."
Odone notes also that:
"Economists at Duke University, North Carolina, recently asked a group of 70-year-olds and a group of 30-year-olds about their well-being: the older cohort felt happier and more optimistic than the younger lot."
I am forced to ask just who the hell this woman, only born in 1960, thinks she is that she can pass an opinion on how those 30/40/50 years older than her feel and think - and pontificate on the decision to end a life that is not hers?
Old age ends in many forms: some people are able to live healthy, active lives in old age and, mercifully for them, are fortunate to collapse and die in a matter of seconds. For others their end is not so fortunate, often resulting in years of pain and the enforced indignity of not being able to ''look after themselves'. Of the latter category there are two main types; those whose bodies are failing but whose minds are 'razor sharp'; and those where both body and mind fail to the extent they know not who or where they are, nor why.
Watching my mother, who will be 100 early this December, suffering the mental torment and unhappiness that her physical inability imposes on her and pleading that she be allowed to die, is not easy to handle on a personal level, let alone for her. That is why I get so annoyed, nay incandescent, with the likes of Odone, politicians and bureaucrats deciding on matters affecting the elderly when they haven't the faintest idea of the problems - and please don't start me on the subject of "researchers"...........
Afterthought (2) My apologies for what is a very personal rant!
10 comments:
No need for apologies, WfW.
No-one, and I really do mean no-one, knows what you, or your dear old mum, are going through.
Miz Odone is a clueless mare. She can only imagine. You, and your Ma, actually have to live the nightmare that Miz Odone will hopefully never witness for herself.
CR.
I am always counting off the years and saying I hope I get to die before things get any worse than they already are. Enduring the indignities of the smoking ban nowadays is one thing. Enduring the personal problems brought on by old age will be a different sort of challenge for me and a personal one at that. But to think that before I get that far along politicians, experts and do-gooders will have come up with 50 additional ways to belabour me and socially engineer me into the corner of abnormality only makes me wince at the thought of it and yes, before that time gets here, then I truly do hope I am dead and do not have to live to see it. That's not to say I would want to suicide myself, but it is to say the combination of old age and the indignities added to it by social engineers who keep pushing the elderly, or anyone above age 40 these days almost, into obsolesence makes me simply not want to grow into old age, not if current trends continue, and with a new party in power, I don't see much change on the horizon yet as I was hoping for, nothing to buoy up my hopes.
I'll be 65 this year, and if all goes well I can probably look forward to another 20 or so years - family genes and all that - but I would not like to live if Alzheimer's or some other condition that meant a complete loss of enjoyment or dignity... As I am not in the fortunate position to be able to afford, as, no doubt, Ms Odone is, the expensive long term care I would need in that case - thanks, but the exit is what I'd need.
No need to apologise at all WfW, I have watched two near relatives outlive their ability to care for themselves and hope I will avoid that fate!
CR, A & TGM: Many thanks to all three of you for your comments - much appreciated.
One only has to look at the Dilnot Inquiry to see that everyone is spoken to (stakeholders etc) but not those who matter - ie the old and their relatives.
We youngsters have a habit of pontificating over the geriatrics.
Good post and my sympathies WfW. I've been through dementia and physical decline with both parents. Truly awful.
JH: No disrespect but the sooner 'youngsters' stop pontificating the bloody better!
T: Thanks for the comment.
am with you WfW all the way, my Dad died 2 years ago, suddenly, but my Mum went rapidly downhill thereafter - dementia and all of that. She is now in a care home not far from where I live and I see her often, but...oh well, you know what i am about to say. Yet my Mum's quality of life at the moment is good...
suppose all i wanted to say was i am with you
Kindly do not say sorry for this fine writing! I helped nurse my ailing mother and how many of the political elite have a clue? they are a bunch of overpaid complacent assholes who need a rope and a lot of old fashoned lamp posts!
TtR & CE: Many thanks, you both are most kind.
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