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Tuesday 14 April 2015

Like the vitality of Schrödinger's cat ...

In a society that has jettisoned recourse to common sense as a means to settle matters, all takes on reality are, it seems, up for grabs.
All actions, particularly those involving sexual consent, can simultaneously be thought of as right and wrong.

The world says, clearly, loudly, repeatedly, that it is wrong to discourage any sexual urge -- except of course when it isn't.
This is regardless of the age, marital connection to, gender, prior acquaintance, blood relation, other commitments, oh heck, species of the object of that sexual urge.
Except, of course when those things do matter, and should be regarded.
 
An elderly politician may go on trial for having engaged in sexual activity with his beloved and loving wife, who had Alzheimer's and was in a nursing home.
A poster in the combox at the linked article says that though he has often stated, "I would not wish a burden similar to mine on my worst enemy....I ‘d be tempted to reconsider that kindness for" those who seem responsible for pushing this malicious prosecution, and I'm tempted to agree.
A more complete treatment of the case is at Bloomberg.
My volunteer activities in the "memory wing" of a nursing home don't give me any particular insight into this situation, but they do provide me with experience of drastic differences in dementia patients' levels of autonomy, of self-actuation and motivation, and more to the point, the drastic differences a single person may present, from week to week, even from moment to moment.
I imagine that, yes, this man from time to time offered attentions that were unwelcome at that particular moment, or that were welcome a split second earlier and no longer were.
But of course, so did the nurses, and the daughters, the and the CNAs, (and probably ministers,) - their attentions would have been of hygiene, beverages and therapy,(and probably prayer and the Blessed Sacrament,) rather than of affection.
But common sense, people!
That people colluded to deprive this old man of his wife and yes, this old woman of her husband, is just cruel.

Oh, one last thing, an opinion forged from one too many personal experiences - any family member who does NOT, as this poor man was said to, have "difficulty following parameters set by [a nursing home or hospital] staff" isn't paying attention.

And probably doesn't deserve to be called "family.".



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