Diamonds and Rust

Over the years I have been asked more times than I can count by elderly persons unable to care for themselves if I could give them something so they could die. They didn’t want to live anymore with the everyday suffering of being bedridden and in pain. They didn’t want food pushed into their mouthes before they had finished swallowing any more.Or the pain that comes from large open bedsores that could take fifteen minutes or more to dress.

They didn’t want to lie for hours in wet,stinking nappies. They just wanted to leave this world with dignity.

I couldn’t help them.

It seems that in Switzerland where I live,the cost of caring for the elderly whether in their living accommodation or in a

nursing home will double between now and the year 2030. In that year an estimated 2 million people over the age of 65 will be living here. In 2005 there were only 1,2 million.

The growth of the over 80 year olds has risen enormously. This has had a massive influence on the cost of health care.

A study by the Swiss Health Observatory says the price for care will rise from 7,3 billion francs in 2005 to around 18 billion in 2030.

The rise is of course affected by the prescription of multiple medication for the aged, on average fifteen tablets a day,and performance of complicated operations, excluding emergency orthopaedic procedures on over seventy five year olds. Higher nursing and so called hotel costs add to it.

Ethics play a great part in how we approach the situation at the moment.

Mankind has the right to live ,but when are we going to have the right to die?

Easter has come and gone again. The heathen eggs eaten, and the taste of chocolate still deliciously on our tongues.

But was it also a religious festival for you?

The existence of God can be neither proven nor disproven.But experts agree that whoever believes in God lives longer.

But the power of prayer when used for others is of little or no use.

A study published by the “American Heart Journal” in 2006, and until now the biggest on the subject, showed that Bypass patients for whose good health was regularly prayed for didn’t improve more than that of others who hadn’t been the subject of prayer.

However on your own health religious belief has an undisputed positive influence.

According to a team from the University of Copenhagen,Denmark people who regularly attended a religious service lived on average 83,4 years,and by women the influence was even greater.

Intensive religious activity prolongs life is also the consensus of Ralph Kunz, Theology Professor at the University of Zürich,Switzerland. Brought about he says by a generally higher motivation in difficult situations. Ressourcen were better mobilised and bodily resistance to negative influences higher.

Religion as a general cure? Recipe for a better society?

Medical Scientists in Israel have discovered that lack of stress before, and during an operation for Cancer was crucial, and determined the healing process.

Psychic or bodily stress influenced the metabolism and inhibited the immune system,thus favouring the chances of a new outbreak.

Blockage of Stress Hormones prior and post operation significantly increased healing.

So the advice could be a bottle of Champagne and a Party. Not forgetting a positive mental attitude. If that’s possible under the circumstances.