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Mercy Killing
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Kamel Abbass- Al Thara Translated by: Ghassan Al- Nasayef
3.7.2010 The suffering of my village peasants, in the fifties of last century, was not restricted on natural disasters, resulted from storms, lightening and the changes of climate, rather it exceeded it to social disasters, and this one of them, recorded in the archives of my memory: a family is formed of a father a mother and four males only, the father got his four children married, to work beside him in the land, so he built for them humble houses next to his, when he got older
he suffered of paralysis, so he became as burden for the whole family, on basis of this ordeal, his children agreed among themselves that, each one of them will keep his father a complete month, so when the month is over, the other child will take turn and so on, but the problem was that, one of the daughter in laws, was of a strong personality and neurotic, in the same time she has the control over her husband, so when the turn come to them, the atmosphere of the family in all its branches becomes electrified. One time the father requested his children, before moving to the house of his difficult daughter in law, to find a solution for his drama and that he desired death, for it is more comfortable for him and for his daughter in law, and that he is ready to declare this before everybody, that he is wholly content to put an end to his life, on an agreement with a doctor, who is to be brought from the city for this purpose. The family, the neighbors, the mayor and the chosen ones of the village gathered, to discuss this issue. The Mayor said : this path is surrounded with danger, in addition it is a challenge to God's ordinance, one of them answered him, the man is considered sick, with a disease that there is no cure from, moreover he is in a torment, that God is not satisfied with, as I think, so putting an end to his life through a legal medicine, is a favor to him and to his family, it is an ending of a tragedy, if it continue it may cause uncountable social problems inside the family, the Mayor replied him : in our village there are many youths, considered to have psychological problems and is also considered to be dangerous to the society, not only to his family, so do we kill that person in order to satisfy the society ? The only solution to this tragedy is patience and accept the test of God in us, serve the patient as much as we could, until God take his life. Modern life presents this problem , in more than one shape and color, in my village and in the world at large, through the presence of patients of all ages, children, youths and old aged, of both sexes, and many of them demand death, as a solution to their tragedy, and the methods of death are now easy, due to advancement of medicine, by making variety of drugs, that can finish life fast and easily, without pain, but the laws in most of the countries around the world, do not accept this kind of practice, consider it as killing of the self, which God prohibited. I remembered this suffering, when I was reading the following story, in Al- Maarifa magazine, from the mid seventies ( Al- Maarifa magazine was and still is published by Syrian Ministry of Education ) the story is translated from Bulgarian, under the title – The floating ice berg – the story says : a very old grandmother, whose grand children got fed up of her, so they decided to get rid of her where she was not knowing, so she was very happy when they told her that, they are going to take her on a sea trip, and as a matter of fact they accompanied her in the trip and sent her to a floating ice berg, as food for fishes and returned back home, save her. No doubt the writer is criticizing the singular dimension development, in her socialist country then, this behavior is condemned and rejected by human values, but by other side it indicate a problem that the society is suffering of, when people reach old age, where they become burden, on themselves and on those who are surrounding them. The solution to this problem is simple, it lies in providing refuges for old people, in every province, supervised by the ministry of health, but the solution to those patients, who are suffering of chronic diseases, which have no cure, is another issue.
Thara E- Magazine No. 240 ,3/7/2010 Reproduction permitted with appropriate citation |
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