In troduction.
On February 5, 2017, the Political Constitution of Mexico City was published, whose entry into force for the most part is scheduled for September 17, 2018 at the latest. This constitution speaks in its 6th article about "the right to a dignified death", as part of a dignified life.
Next, I will try to provide elements that invite reflection about this right and the way in which the existing moral relativism could directly affect the elderly in our country, in the event that this article is regulated, considering for such an effect euthanasia and assisted suicide.
A n tecedentes.
Our country is experiencing an irreversible aging process that, according to statistical data, indicates that from 2020 the population aged 60 and over will increase significantly, from 10.4% in 2015 to 14.9% in 2030 already 24.7% in 2050, that is, one in four people will be in the stage of old age.
On the other hand, suicides in Mexico have shown an increase between 2000 and 2014, increasing from 3.5 to 5.2 people per 100 thousand inhabitants, reaching 6,337 the number of suicides reported in 2014 and although this situation occurs mostly among the young population, the number of suicide cases in adults is approximately 10%.
Single, divorced or widowed men show higher rates of suicide and a greater predisposition than women towards this behavior. Perhaps this difference between the two sexes may be related to the social roles that both men perform, since men are affected more deeply after retirement.
Euthanasia was decriminalized in 1984 in the Netherlands, under the fulfillment of certain conditions, among which was that the patient would experience intolerable suffering with no prospect of improvement, however, over time euthanasia has "evolved" in that country, allowing it even for reasons of psychological suffering, loss of autonomy, poor quality of life, feeling of being an economic burden, etc.
This shows how something that was initially accepted as a solution to a specific condition of excruciating pain and suffering has become something that can be accessed for very different and varied causes in a relatively short period of time.
Des a rr ollo .
People generally develop an awareness that indicates what is right and what is wrong and act accordingly. People typically do not steal, kill, or hurt others, not out of fear of punishment under criminal law, but because they are convinced that this is wrong and act out of a good person instinct, often not even knowing the penalty imposed. legal systems.
Moral judgments are those that qualify different acts as good or bad based on moral norms and therefore may be different for each person in different periods of their life, this difference is one of the arguments of ethical relativism by holding the idea that by diversity of judgments, moral values are relative and that they can then be compared to an illusion or a superstition.
This relativism has led to a rapidly diminishing awareness of the importance of living values and more and more people are leading through life justifying their actions according to the context in which they are developed, generally seeking personal benefit or avoiding responsibility for said actions. acts, but also this way of acting has been changing the way we react to different situations.
Surely we know of cases of older adults who are working without receiving a salary in self-service stores, who are hired to carry out cleaning work in the public transport system, who are employed as security guards of buildings or housing units or who occupy in the parking lots to help the movement of the cars by means of a whistle or worse, older adults who by separating from work have reached levels of poverty that lead them to walk the streets looking for recyclable materials among the garbage to sell and well get some money.
Situations like those mentioned and many others have become daily in our lives, the moral relativism that exists in our culture clouds in us the idea of taking actions to defend the rights of the elderly or even seeking to treat them with greater respect. It seems that old age is the stage to be abused, mistreated, exploited, ignored and even forgotten by society. How many of us give a "good tip" to the man or woman who helps us in the "super" for the mere fact of being an older adult, as a reward for their effort to remain active despite their age,Without reflecting on the fact that you are being exploited by working without receiving a salary as established by law or perhaps we are one of those who believe that working in cleaning tasks is for those people who, due to their age, cannot do anything else.
At the global level, the aging of the population can be considered a success and at the same time constitutes a great challenge to improve the social participation and safety of the elderly, however the goal of promoting active and healthy aging in our country will not reach much fast, although at the moment we are working with some attempts to "change" people's mentality and provoke in society an improvement in habits that achieve the objectives of a better quality of life in old age, there are factors that will cause without doubt very difficult situations for older adults on a personal, family and social level.
Poor health habits, the lack of formal jobs, low wages, the high population concentration in cities, the growth of violence, the routine use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, the increase in chronic degenerative diseases and their costly and long treatment, the breakdown of family structures, ignorance and low educational level, but above all poverty and lack of a secure and sufficient income in old age, among other things, can become triggers for older people look for "solutions" to their economic and health problems, if they find legally permitted options that justify their actions.
The reasons for a person to decide to take their own life can be many, undoubtedly all of them intimately personal, however, that decision can be reinforced by the idea of "dying with dignity", given the fear of losing control of life as A disease advances and death approaches and before the possibility of dying without being able to control the pain.
This rhetoric between life and death has great potential to influence the morale of our society and its influence may be even greater given the apathy and lack of interest of the population in public affairs that occurs at a time when the levels of Poverty and the elderly population are growing rapidly in our country.
Legalizing homicides with the argument of respecting the right of people to decide about their own lives and putting the mercy of the act as a justification in the face of the suffering of the patient, are also one more example of that moral relativism that is present in situations in which Human ethics has been influenced by a discourse that provides the opportunity to justify the act that causes death, based on the context and avoiding any type of political and social responsibility for the act.
Beliefs play a very important role in the way of seeing death, there will be those who see it as a step to a better life, there will be those who see it as an act of honor, others perhaps as a liberation from suffering or even as a right However, in all cases the decision to die is strongly influenced by personal conscience and it seems that society strives to legitimize the moral relativism that affects people's actions through laws that tend to lean towards acceptance. and adoption of external ideological currents.
C on c lu s io n
While it is true that our country needs to prepare for the future and it is an urgent need to create public policies that allow the population to achieve a healthy, dignified and active aging, it is also important to ensure that those who live the stage of old age can live without the need to consider death as a solution to economic and family problems for the simple fact of being legal.
It is important to be aware that aging is a natural process that began from conception and will end with death and that ideally we will all become "old" and will depend on participation in the life of our country, which is guaranteed that the Active aging proposed by the current world takes place within a framework of justice and protection for all citizens and not that it provokes the evasion of the responsibility of the State to guarantee the right to a truly dignified life, through arguments full of ethical relativism such as having the “right to a dignified death”.
B i b li og r afia
- Abellán, A. (2005). Suicide among the elderly. Retrieved on May 19, 2017, from: www.eutanasia.ws/hemeroteca/t192.pdf Gutiérrez, JV, & Ortega, I. (2007). The "slippery slope" in euthanasia in the Netherlands. Retrieved on May 19, 2017, from aebioetica.org/revistas/2007/18/1/62/89.pdf Ibarra, RC (2011). Fundamentals of Law. Los Reyes la Paz, Mexico: Technological Institute of Higher Studies of the East of the State of Mexico, National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). (September 8, 2015). Statistics on the world day for the prevention of suicide. Mexico, Constituent Assembly of the City of. (February 5, 2017). Political Constitution of Mexico City. Retrieved on May 19, 2017, from http://www.cdmx.gob.mx/constitucionOrganización Mundial de la Salud. (sf). Health issues,Aging. Retrieved on May 15, 2017, from
