Legalizing
Euthanasia Would Interfere With Treating “the Elderly as Individuals”
The awful (and tragic) comments of novelist Martin Amis, suggesting
that “suicide booths on every corner” would be a splendid solution to
the purported problem of the “stinking” elderly– my take here–continues
to provoke comment. The Times of London reports the reaction of
the
92-year-old writer Diana Hathill, who urges that the elderly be treated
as individuals. From the story:
The author of five volumes of memoirs — the most
recent, Life
Class, was published last month — is not against euthanasia. “I would
like to think if I wanted to end my life I could. People shouldn’t have
to beg to die.” However, she says that is different from Amis’s view
that people should be bumped off when they are no longer useful to
society. “You have to have some control. People don’t want to be
burdens, everyone I know who is old frets that their family has to cope
with them but they don’t really want to die before their time.” Animals
sometimes receive better treatment than old people, she thinks. “The
British like animals because they are simple creatures, they give them
clothes, furniture, gourmet pet food, it’s getting ridiculous.”
The elderly should be treated as individuals, she
says. “You
shouldn’t expect them all to retire at a certain age, I carried on
working until I was 75. One does eventually go off the boil but you
shouldn’t take the pan off the hob too early.” It was, the writer says,
agonising moving into a retirement home. “Quite dreadful, but now it’s
rather nice. Some people here are very old indeed, but you suddenly
discover they are still very interesting.”
Hathill is talking at cross purposes with herself. On one hand she says
she rejects Amis’s thesis, but then accepts it in the next breath, just
not as crassly.
The problem of elders feeling a burden shouldn’t be
understandable.
Rather, it should be opposed. The reason so many accept the
“burden”
meme is that they hear the message that their lives, at some point,
aren’t worth living and as Hathill points out, become too
expensive to
maintain. But legalizing euthanasia promotes that very
dehumanization
of the elderly. You can’t say treat them as equals with the rest
of
society, but also assist their suicides. That is akin to saying,
don’t
smoke, but if you do, use filter cigarettes: What you end up with is
people smoking.
Contact: Wesley J. Smith
Source:
Secondhand Smoke
Publish
Date:
February 1, 2010
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coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
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persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
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