Wednesday 2 July 2008

Are we right in subjecting our elders to pain in the name of treatment?


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I don’t know whether you will have any good opinion about me after reading this blog. Our incomes have expanded and so has medical facilities. Medical facilities have grown to such an extent that we can safely say that we have 75% conquered death though not ageing.
We all value our elders especially if they are our parents. We want to shower on them all the care and affection that they gave us when we were young. There may be a few disgraceful children who don’t do so. When our elders fall sick, we get terribly frightened. We afford them the best treatment possible to ensure that they are back to normal.
This blog is not to question this basic human approach to our elders. I also do the same things but at the same time feel sometimes in the name of advanced treatment, I subject my mother who is 70 plus to a lot of pain and agony. Undergoing those countless blood tests, climbing those steep xray tables, bearing those radiations, undergoing various minor surgeries, numerous injections, etc., whether all this is worth the effort and is it justified for me to subject her to so much of pain? She feels that she has seen life to the maximum extent possible and wants to spend her remaining days in peace and prayers. I don’t relent and coerce her into undergoing this treatment because I care for her.
Will I agree for such pain and agony at her age. How much pain she has to undergo for me to feel satisfied? Will it make me a less caring son, if I don’t subject her to such pain? I don’t think so. It seems as if to for a public display of care, I am coercing her to undergo all this pain. Anyhow I have no ideas of relenting and want to ensure that she gets the best of medical care and attention.

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