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Family system is a blessing
The Economist recently carried a very moving story of an old couple
who, at the extreme of age with terminal health diseases, decided
to commit ‘assisted suicide’. According to the details, Sir Edward Downes, a British conductor, aged 85, partly deaf and almost
completely blind, and his wife Joan, aged 74, having terminal
cancer travelled to Switzerland, where the law on assisted suicide
is the world’s most liberal.
Holding hands and watched by their son and daughter, they drank a
lethal dose of barbiturates and died.
The suicide is not a crime in most of the western world but helping
another to commit it is. The Dignitas is a famous suicide clinic in
Zurich where people desirous of dying travel as the laws in
Switzerland for assisted suicide is considered a crime only when it
is done for some gain.
The writer of the Economist has supported the assisted suicides for
terminally ill as, according to him, their lives are their own, and
denying it to them is to add cruelty to misfortune.
That people in the West, though terminally sick or incapacitated,
want to commit suicide or seek assistance in committing one is
really perplexing for many. This is despite the fact that the West
is a highly developed society where people enjoy all sorts of
facilities and the best of environment in the world.
Moreover, basic facilities such as education and health are free
and where the law protects the underdog and the affected and not
only the privileged ones.
The state takes care of the people who are advance in age and
retired, even handicapped or jobless are supported through various
social security schemes.
In contrast, things in eastern societies are quite opposite. Here
the old or the infirm are not provided any social securities by the
state. Here laws seldom come into action for the protection of weak
and the downtrodden.
However, even in such an unkind world with unhealthy environment,
neither the terminally ill and handicapped desire to commit suicide
nor the people taking care of make them feel that they are burden
for them. The reason for this is our family system, as well as the
teachings of our religion that commands that life is an inviolable
trust of God and only He can take it back and those who attain old
age have to be respected and taken care of by their children as the
latter were looked after when they were siblings.
Thus it is for the family system based on traditions and religious
teachings that we find life still intact in this part of the world.
The joint family does not estrange the elderly, infirm and the
handicapped from mainstream society. On the contrary, an elder
person is afforded more care and respect in this age-old social
structure.
Therefore, those in the West who are inclined to commit suicide do
not do it because of their terminal illness but it is the isolation
they are kept in by their offspring away form family in old-age
homes which forced them to go for such merciless option.
Basically, it is the time when the old and infirm need greater love
and affection of their children and grandchildren but they are sent
away to live in solitude.
Moona Hamid
Karachi
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Misuse of Cell Phones
THE invention of the mobile phone was primarily inspired by an
easier, simpler and anytime connection with people. Mobile phones
have become a necessary part of our daily lives. Similar to other
technologies, the mobile phone utilisation depends on the ‘mode of
usage’.
Massive growth in the telecom sector has facilitated communication
access to common man — brought about a positive difference in
people’s lives and made the real time connection a reality – but at
the same time it has also led to the negative and addictive usage
of this fascinating technology.
Just imagine how many road mishaps we can avoid if we use a
hands-free device with our mobile while driving — how much more we
can contribute towards our studies if we stop forwarding gossips
while in a lecture — and how much focus we can attain during our
work if we limit its personal usage.
Moreover, a negative usage of mobile phones is that crank calls and
smses written in bad taste become a headache, especially in case of
females receiving them. What primarily prompted me to write today
is a personal experience, when I with my friends was sitting in a
restaurant and noticed that a group of middle-aged men sitting on
the other table were taking our pictures while trying to be
un-noticed. Do they realise how damaging this can be for us? How
brutal can it be once it spreads over the internet or through a
viral MMS with a misleading title?
The technology and social responsibility always work better and to
the best interests of people if used in a responsible manner. I
plead with the mobile phone service providers not to just
communicate reduced call rates but also play a role in educating
the society on the good use of technology and act like a good and
socially responsible corporate citizen.
Manaqib Irtaqa
karachi
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