Essay About Traditional Religious Vision Of The World And Medical Technology

Elderly
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Im most grateful for the opportunity of answering this question.
Since I began as a Google Answers Researcher, Ive always wished to
work on a question that, like this one, dealt with a significant
issue, involving not just searching abilities, but also challenging in
a sensible and intellectual meaning. I hope to have been at its level.
First point: the word “elder”. Ive chosen to leave aside any
consideration about connotations of the word in the present culture–it
seems appropriate enough to differentiate the group of people over 85
from the other “seniors” within the frame of the present research.
However, when addressing to them, other options such as those
suggested by Hummer-ga might be a better choice.
Since youve introduced this question as the third of a suite I began
by carefully reading my fellow researchers previous works, and taking
them as inputs for further development.
Before getting to the point, I ask you please forgive some apparent
digressions that I considered necessary for a better understanding of
the suggestions regarding governments role in improving elders
quality of life.
After the excellent job done by Hummer-ga and my own research, Ive
divided the subject in these two main aspects to focus in:
1-Cultural preconceptions; capability of choice and decision.
2- Physical, psychological and economic vulnerability; dependence on
the younger people and institutions.
Next, Ill develop each item in two parts: first a description and
then a series of suggestions, some of which may already be part of
programs being held by different governments.
1-Cultural preconceptions.
Description:
The mythical wish of eternal youth is as old as humans conscience of
aging and death, but in our present times this desire seems empowered
by medical technology and social expectations. While the strength,
capacity and health of the young body has always been appreciated,
seniors have been traditionally considered holders of knowledge,
experience and wisdom, and there place and role in the communities was
an important and cherished one. As an example, lets remember that the
words “senior” and “senator” have the same Latin root: “senex”, that
means “old person”. In the early Roman political system -as well as in
Athenas- the group of governmental high decision makers was
integrated by the old ones. In ancient societies -as well as in
surviving non “modern” ones- the age itself was an attribute to be
respected.
What happened in the way? The current overestimation of youth and its
concomitant underestimation of the older people is a process that
slowly began in the Renaissance, along with the decay of the medieval
guilds–while invention and incipient industrialization was turning
obsolete the ancestral methods of production. The eighteenth centurys
philosophical movement known as The Enlightenment–that questioned the
traditional religious vision of the world to the prevail of
Reason–enhanced that change, and it started to take speed in the
latter nineteenth century, as the Second Industrial Revolution took
place. The traditional respect for seniors wisdom corresponds to an
era when the knowledge that the young needed was the same that the old
had gained more experience in. But as technology innovation begun to