- Joined
- Apr 11, 2016
- Highlight
- #1
I’m working on a project at a senior care facility for work. Part of what I’m doing requires me to be in the residents rooms and doing work while they’re in the corridors or in their own rooms bedridden or staring out the window in a wheelchair.
I’ve been thinking about the whole situation with people living longer than they did 20-30 years ago, and I wonder if some of the elderly individuals in situations like these are existing or if theyre living. I’m not trying to advocate for euthanasia or assisted suicide, let me be clear. I’m simply wondering if there needs to be some kind of ethical discussion about the quality of life some senior citizens are able to get once they’re at a certain age (also taking into account their medical/psychological condition).
At the risk of sounding like a full tinfoil hatted conspiracy theorist I am aware that there’s a large chunk of business and revenue that comes from the commoditization of elder care (basically everything except the beds and the meds in a hospital or a care facility is made by McKesson, a publicly traded corporation), and there’s a whole cottage house industry that popped up around charging medicare/insurance companies/TriCare for all the services and personnel that make up elder care.
tl;dr: is there something we can do for the elderly that are in these situations to help them get a better quality of life? Is it ethical to even consider that some of these individuals are being kept alive simply because its profitable from an actuarial POV?
I’ve been thinking about the whole situation with people living longer than they did 20-30 years ago, and I wonder if some of the elderly individuals in situations like these are existing or if theyre living. I’m not trying to advocate for euthanasia or assisted suicide, let me be clear. I’m simply wondering if there needs to be some kind of ethical discussion about the quality of life some senior citizens are able to get once they’re at a certain age (also taking into account their medical/psychological condition).
At the risk of sounding like a full tinfoil hatted conspiracy theorist I am aware that there’s a large chunk of business and revenue that comes from the commoditization of elder care (basically everything except the beds and the meds in a hospital or a care facility is made by McKesson, a publicly traded corporation), and there’s a whole cottage house industry that popped up around charging medicare/insurance companies/TriCare for all the services and personnel that make up elder care.
tl;dr: is there something we can do for the elderly that are in these situations to help them get a better quality of life? Is it ethical to even consider that some of these individuals are being kept alive simply because its profitable from an actuarial POV?