STATE OF OLD
This was the last article Martine de BONY wrote before she passed away peacefully at the age of 91 years on the 12th April 2018 in Basle, Switzerland.
The ground has become too low, the cupboards too high; the omnipresent marches; the toilets to the devil; the car parked at Petaouchnock.
The clever prehension, privilege of the human, has gone, replaced by the “butter-fingers” well named by the English. We drop the small fry of everyday life as well as the stack of plates. And how to pick up the pieces when you can no longer bend your knees? … Unless you have a long “catcher grab” you have to know how to make the giraffe: the neck of this animal, which allows him to browse the top of the trees, is not long enough, however, to reach below a body of water, and the old giraffe who, like us, can no longer bend his legs, spreads them to enlarge the angle at the top, bringing his head closer to the bass (but where she learned this geometry?).
The elderly, who regularly attend the medical world in the hope of a better life, attend especially the waiting rooms where a supplement of suffering awaits them: sit down and get up from the chairs that are usually put in their arrangement. It would be simple and inexpensive to relocate these chairs armchairs with armrests! The disabled knee are not necessarily arms, and to rely on them would allow them to get up without pain. Why is this measure of comfort not mandatory?
This obviously concerns the independent old age, able to dress, to feed, to take care of, to telephone, to move, the old age “soft”, that which should be appreciated by the State for its low cost, and not penalized for lower repayments. But what about old age sick, invalid, dependent, the nightmare of Social Security? … Social Security, no doubt, but not the State, father of the Nation, whose nightmare, he, is unemployment. This is a wonderful “job pool”, as the policies say.
The state is so fond of its old men that it cruelly refuses medical help to leave this world quietly; if they feel like it. Thank you, State! You will be ashamed, soon, of your anathema! Is it human to let your appearances, those you will be tomorrow, deliver themselves, alone, to the liberating DIY? …
“Where is the problem ?” said a former prime minister. “Everyone has the right to commit suicide, just throw yourself under a train”. To hang yourself, to disembowel, to shoot yourself in the body, to immolate yourself by the fire, you can escape from it, justice will not pursue you.
Autolysis (suicide) is lawful, but if someone helps you do that deliberately, it’s a crime. And yet, if you apply any of these barbaric treatments to an animal, you will go to prison (which is normal), while they are the only ones authorized and effective for the human animal towards himself. ; as if redemptive pain was still the law in our secular country. It is necessary to suffer to die, as, a short time ago, it was absolutely necessary to suffer to give birth.
The hard work of end-of-life activists without pain will end up overcoming this absurd archaism, but how long will it take for the death to be within the reach of every citizen?
Martine de BONY † 1926–2018
