Here is an interesting article about the respect for human life - of the elderly. The emphasis is mine. Read the entire artilce. It''s something that we should be concerned about.
Effie
......Between 2000 and 2008, instances of "immediate jeopardy" – violations likely to result in serious harm or even death – rose 22 percent. More than 90 percent of all nursing homes were guilty of at least one violation.
How have we allowed this to happen? In addition to the demographic and economic factors at play – the ranks of the elderly are swelling, the birthrate is declining, and our entitlement programs are on the brink of collapse – there is an underlying cultural component to the elder abuse crisis in America. Over the last several decades American society has gradually shifted from a "sanctity of life" to a "quality of life" ethic. Increasingly obsessed with youth and utility, we have come to evaluate the net worth of human beings based on cost-benefit ratios and quality of life calculus. And not surprisingly, the elderly (who cost more to maintain than they produce, whose functional capacities have deteriorated because of old age or illness, and who serve as unwelcome reminders of our own mortality) do not score well using these standards. In the next 20 or 30 years, when our expanding elder cohort is consuming valuable resources and is no longer deemed "useful," one shudders to imagine what "solutions" might be devised to deal with the growing problem of eldercare.
The crisis of eldercare abuse, then, is one that begs for our attention and demands a solution. First and foremost, it is critical that the American people begin to view eldercare as one of the great moral problems of our generation. For too long we have viewed the coming Senior Tsunami solely in abstract economic terms while ignoring the "human factors" at stake. For the younger generations in particular – those expected to bear the fiscal brunt of replenishing our anemic entitlement infrastructure – it is easy for a sentiment of bitterness to prevail. However, we must remember that the elderly – no matter how disabled or helpless – are human beings who deserve to be treated with the full measure of dignity and respect. America's senior citizens should not become victims of a sliding scale that erodes their humanity as their faculties decline. Those of us who care about the creation of a just society must be willing to defend the rights of the elderly no less vigorously than the rights of the unborn.
http://townhall.com/columnists/KenConnor/2010/10/17/elder_abuse_americas_dirty_secret/page/2
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