The Tease of Things I Don't Need

The slippery slope at the legal edge of the grave

Tammy passed along this cheery bit concerning the opinions of Baroness Warnock, "Britain's leading medical ethics expert." The piece finds me looking askance at what this says about the state of ethics in the UK and the sheer definition of the term. As part of an interview she says:

"In other contexts, sacrificing oneself for one's family would be considered good. I don't see what is so horrible about the motive of not wanting to be an increasing nuisance.

"If I went into a nursing home it would be a terrible waste of money that my family could use far better."

In the end I suppose I must commend her on her candor, as at least she's bringing the full spectrum of the issue to the fore. Those who are against euthenasia under any circumstance - a position I find to be too extreme - often remark that to allow it at all is to set foot on a slippery slope that would lead to "dispassionate" outsiders looking at an elderly person in terms of a balance sheet. It becomes easy -- all the moreso when one considers the Baroness' comments -- to see a world where the elderly are browbeaten into giving up their hold on life because, well, they're so obviously "done."

This approach places a financial bottom line on old age, taking it another step towards turning it into a luxury item.

I've been trying in vain to recall the title of a short story, a piece of science fiction I read years ago, but can't recall if it was in one of the anthologies of award-winning stories or simply in one of the issues of one of the SF monthlies I used to subscribe to. It involved a societal mantra of the "turning of the wheel," and presented the reader with a world in which various medical therapies allowed people to live long beyond 100 years, though some did so well while others did not. The decision of whether to continue to live was left solely in the hands of the individual, though personnel at the medical facilities would, when confronted with someone who was merely clinging to life - existing, not living, counsel them on the philosophy of the wheel of life, and how it was a noble thing for someone to do, essentially giving up his or her spot. (I don't recall if inherent in this was a societal structure where birth permits were issued and there was strict population control, though it seems implicit in the philosophy.)

In the tale we're presented with the society through the lens of a character who (as best I can recall) was a composer of some note who appeared to be in excellent health -- particularly in contrast to some of the other patients in the facility who were aging poorly and described as leather-skinned mummies -- but who had decided that as so many of the people he'd cared for had died over the years he had come to the decision that it was time for him to "turn the wheel" and make way for someone else. The personnel at the facility were chagrined by this and spent much effort trying to convince him that he had something to live for, going so far as to contact people who knew the man personally to get them to help him change his mind and continue living. (If all this sparks anyone's memory and they can help me narrow it down, I'd appreciate it. It could turn out to be an ultimately less than stellar work produced by someone who never made it "big," but I'd nonetheless be interested in digging it up and giving it a fresh reading.)

The notion of reducing the value of life to quantifiable terms is the cold key that brought me to the recollection of that story. The justifiable fear is that once one removes an absolute and irreducible value to human life that we will all, inevitably, find ourselves in the hands of the accounting department. Looking down that path it's not so difficult to get a glimpse of a future where, for the elderly of less than independent means, their job - and so their fiscally measurable degree of "usefulness" - could literally mean life or death. Heh. In such a world a writer could, in essence, be given a death sentence by a popular set of critics.

Back to the here and now, though, I can't help but think that someone who is both a Baroness and has held high appointments in government likely doesn't have much of a personal feel for what it's like to be in a financial position where someone would be able to suggest to her that she's a financial drag on society and/or her family.