We do have choice. What they are asking for is permission.
REH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Arthur Cordell Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 9:53 AM To: 'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION' Cc: 'Keith Hudson' Subject: Re: [Futurework] Here's to mental health at 90! We have to keep nudging legislators to bring about needed changes, much the same way that the women's movement called for choice and control over their own bodies. Some seniors would also like control over their own bodies. Seems a simple idea. Arthur From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lawrence de Bivort Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 9:31 AM To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION Cc: 'Keith Hudson' Subject: Re: [Futurework] Here's to mental health at 90! Agreed, Keith, Though I don't know about the bludgeoning! More and more, people seem less fearful of death. Perhaps that fear was derived from the religiously promoted threats of heaven and hell? My sense is that many people have attained such a level of quality in their lives that losing much of that quality in the face of the infirmities of age is unacceptable. And with our longer live-spans it may be easier to conclude that one has led a good life and that it is time to wrap it up. Some of my friends talk about pacts among themselves to make sure that their last days are not spent in hopeless agony. Going to a service in Switzerland may be the best option now -- though a program I saw about it some time ago made it seem too austere for my tastes -- is an expensive option and like so much else, the virtues of 'grow and buy local' may extend themselves to this end-of-life realm. Cheers, Lawry Arthur, Over here the idea of euthanasia is proceeding far faster than I would have expected even as recently as a year or two ago. My partner and I have both signed a legal Advance Notices (requesting non-resuscitation in case of severe debilitation, etc), and there are increasing numbers of press stories about individuals (usually the totally paralysed with locked-in minds who can only communicate by blinking) who want to be sent on their way, retired doctors who confess to mercy killings when they practised, and there's a growing stream of people leaving for the clinic in Switzerland that does this thing. I think that well within 20 years -- when there'll be huge numbers of the old -- we'll see voluntary euthanasia on a large scale. I think we'll start to see a lot more involuntary euthanasia than already goes on in our nursing homes. My guess is that, already, hundreds, if not thousands, of cases go on every year that are never revealed. As recently as 200 years ago when Scandinavian families in the far north had had a bad summer and insufficient food to see them through the winter if they had an aged parent on board, they would hold a ceremony (usually on a particular family rock) whereby the ancient was clubbed to death (with their permission). Once we get this Christian thing about souls and so forth out of our head then euthanasia of anybody who's become a severe economic drain will become culturally acceptable. It will take generations but, I think, inevitable. It seems terribly shocking to us now but it will be normal then. Keith
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