To the Editor,
Many thanks to Kathie Haynes for putting Stan Gudmundson’s outlandish rant in perspective. Facts have been endangered recently, but I think and hope that they will prevail.
Re: declining population: It’s not a pretty sight to imagine wholesale death of those who get old. But nobody owes us 20 extra years past our “use by” date. I am 75, an age unheard of a thousand years ago. I have done everything that I have had the energy to do – travel, family, work and play – a full life. Even a hundred years ago, I probably wouldn’t have lived this long. The prodigious population growth since the industrial revolution is a burden the earth can no longer bear.
There are three words that could provide a solution to both overpopulation of babies and elders. Many people believe these things are evil to even consider; others, especially those most closely concerned, feel that they are all moral in some circumstances. These words are abortion, euthanasia, and monasticism.
No one should bear an unwanted child, and no one should have to live with intractable pain or in a vegetative state, or with dementia so severe they don’t know themselves.
People like me who wear out bodies and/or minds in the course of life could plan for entrance into co-living arrangements similar to medieval monasteries, where life is simple, safe, and predictable, with sisters or brothers instead of paid caretakers when one becomes moribund.
Two more words (well, phrases): 1) birth control, and 2) DNR/DNI orders.
Declining population is a GOOD thing!
Alima Fairchild
Rushford, Minn.