How long is too long? (nursing home patients)

The beautiful, idealized Christian way of looking at old age (often spoken of as the golden years) is lovely. We think of the very elderly as being wise in years, gentle, affectionate, and serene in their declining years. We feel that they will have a dignified approach to death, with an expectant joy of the wonderful life to come. We thank a gracious Father when it can be like that.

Unfortunately, those of us who live in a nursing home, as I do at age 84, too often see another side to the matter. We see people so devastated with physical and mental illness that they no longer are able to give thanks for the great gift of life that has been given to them from the all-powerful giver of gifts. They cannot pray, nor can they understand when hearing the prayers of the chaplain who visits them. Sermons and songs of praise are lost to them because their minds have no ability to understand or communicate with others.

Even though such people have no awareness of loving God, the one comforting thought is that God still loves them. If one is a true believer, there should not be anything bad about death. The sad part too often is what one has to go through before reaching that stage.

Medical science and technology have made it very difficult to die. We were not meant to live forever-but the life span has been so lengthened that people too frequently are kept alive by artificial means, or even by machines that do their breathing for them. They are alive but not really living. It is as if the real inner being, perhaps even the soul, has gone on-but the body is still imprisoned in this world. Alzheimer's disease is one of the most ruthless jailers. In its early stages, people may walk about and seem to live fairly normal lives; but as the problems grow steadily worse, the patient is a very pitiful object. I wonder if the condition is not what our ancestors called senility, but now they have means of seeing sections of the brain. Strokes, aneurysms, and many other diseases can be equally to blame for the last sad years of a human life.

Our doctors have done wonderful things to help us have healthier lives; and we would hope it could become even better for children and people of an age still able to contribute something worthwhile to life. But for the aged, it sometimes seems that God gives the call that our earthly time is over-and medical science holds us back. We can't blame the doctors. They are required to take the Hippocratic oath, which, in its most simple meaning, is a solemn promise to do all in their power to maintain life. Surely, Hippocrates, who lived in 460-377 BC, never ...