Last week my mom, who is 87, had a bad fall and broke her elbow. She had surgery to fix the elbow and now she's in rehab. This past week has been an eye opener for me about the dignity of human life, on the other end of the spectrum. While in the hospital my mom insisted that the doctors, nurses, aids etc. call her Helen, not sweetie, not darling, but by her given name. It was her way of maintaining her dignity and reminding them that she was a real person, not a medical condition, but a person.
Dignity is important to all of us but perhaps even more for the elderly. I can see my mother's frustation when someone asks me a question that they should be asking her. It gets me frustrated too. I can see my mother's frustration when she can no longer do lttle things like brush her hair. She wants to be neat and presentable. I don't understand, but then again I'm not 87 and I can get around without having to ask for help. 19 years ago I was watching my children get frustrated as they tried to learn how to stand by themselves. Now I'm watching the frustration in my mother's eyes when she can't stand by herself.
Dignity? How do we protect the dignity of someone who can no longer do the basics by themselves?
In recent years we've heard dgnity used as a resason for euthanasia. The idea is to allow people to "die with dignity". In other words, to be able to avoid the physical and mental limitations of aging. Is euthanasia really about "helping" the eldery or is it about ensuring that society does not have to deal with the demands of the elderly? I'm inclinced to think that it has more to do with the latter.
By killing people off we are not only depriving them of their lives, we are also depriving the rest of us the chance to be the human person that God calls us to be - the kind of person who respects and cares for human life. It's by caring and protecting the vulnerable that we truly learn how to be human.
This is one of the times in my life that I am so grateful to be Catholic. I am grateful to be a part of a Church that insists on protecting all human life, a Church that insists that human life, at every stage, is precious.
God is good.
I will end with the words of Jesus "what ever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to Me."
Effie
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