Offended Old Age

A wake-up call shocked Great Britain: old people left to themselves, unwashed, without food nor water or medical treatment; left to die alone while their relatives stood in the near waiting rooms, awaiting to bid the last farewell to their dear ones. These situations, denounced in a survey conducted by the British Health ombudsman – in charge of monitoring public services – shocked Great Britain. Among the many comments, Catholic Primate Msgr. Vincent Nichols said: “Christian generosity contrasts with prevailing behaviors experienced in our societies”. We asked David Jones, the director of the “Anscombe Centre” , the Catholic Institute for Bioethics, to share his views on the issue.The latest report by the ombudsman on British health service performance disclosed the existence of cases of abuse on old people. What do you think about this?“I would like to be surprised, but unfortunately I’m not. It’s depressing – albeit not surprising – news. A similar situation has been experienced also in old age homes, as denounced by charities such as ‘Help the aged’ and through journalistic inquiries, such as the BBC reportage broadcast a few months ago. The problem is the lack of a will to treat elderly patients and those suffering from serious diseases like senile dementia with dignity”.Why?“In Great Britain there is a widespread culture of efficiency which forgets that the older generation has given a positive contribution to society in the past and that old people deserve to be respected and taken care of. A movement in particular claims that it’s wrong to spend money for old or sick people. Baroness Warnock, a famous intellectual in the United Kingdom, said in a recent interview that ‘if you suffer from dementia you waste the life of others and that of your family, and you’re also wasting national health resources’. She suggested, in an article titled ‘the duty to die’, that there’s nothing wrong in feeling the need to die so as not to be a burden on other people”.In commenting on the report, Catholic primate Msgr. Nichols, said that cuts in public spending risk affecting the weaker social brackets and old people… “There is a risk that cuts will make things worse. It’s also true that in the 1970s-1980s a mentality started to prevail according to which the State has the duty of taking care of old and the sick people. Today a large number of British citizens take for granted that it’s up to the State to treat their relatives, and they find it normal to avail themselves of old age homes. The result is that the State is no longer capable of meeting such high expectations. Indeed, life expectancy increases and there are many more old people as compared to the past. Public services are not adequately equipped to address the situation”.Don’t old people protest to change the situation? “The so-called ‘grey vote’ doesn’t seem to affect us much and perhaps even old people are not that worried”.Does the way in which old people are treated also depend on the fact that religious values are less widespread? “It’s always hard to talk about individual religiosity, although certainly greater expectations of State intervention corresponded to a decline in religious practice. Even religious vocations are decreasing, thus there are less religious orders charged with assisting the weaker brackets. Nurses and hospital staff often receive poor retributions which impacts the way in which they take care of the patients. Notably, a large number of hospital nurses in Great Britain are Irish or Philippine. There currently are some 40.000 Philippine nurses. There are fewer British nurses perhaps because our society ascribes less value to the care of the weak and to charity”.With his “Big society” concept, premier David Cameron calls for greater involvement in State services by society as a whole. What’s your opinion? “I think that the idea, in abstract terms, is good. The problem is that it is being introduced alongside with the cuts, thus citizens are under the impression that the State wishes to ascribe to them the services that it is unable to provide. It’s also interesting to note that cuts in public spending are often met by angry responses. Instead of asking themselves what they can do to help the State in its attempt to recover from public debt, citizens get angry because the State can no longer ensure the same services it provided in the past”.