Medical science can keep us alive well beyond our expiration date. That was what my father told me when he was in his 90s, a message I understood. He was alive, as long as breathing was all one wanted from life, but he struggled to walk, to remember names, to manage his personal hygiene. The problem was that he knew he was failing, his life pretty much sucked, but there he was, waking up every morning anyway. He wasn’t about to do anything to change the status quo, but when it came, he was ready and it was fine with him. He remembered what it was like to be able to enjoy life.
As the population ages, and it is indeed aging thanks to medical science’s ability to keep blood pumping if no other part of our anatomy, the need for care becomes increasingly problematic. First, caring for the elderly isn’t exactly a fun job, even if they can be cute at times. Their needs are constant. Senile dementia isn’t as adorable as they make it look in the movies. They can be downright unpleasant and demanding, often quite offensive without being entirely responsible for what they say and do. Who wants a job like that? Continue reading →