This is an extract from a post I put up early in the pandemic:
One result that all the governments seem to be in agreement upon is the concept of "home-jailing" all the old-fogies (like me) to "protect us". Thanks, but if we don´t have it to spread, surely it is up to us to make the judgement on what activities are so urgent that we are willing to risk our lives for them (going to the Niño high on my list).
They can´t really cite overloading hospital resources as most governments also seem to have adopted a "sod the old" triage policy. I actually find that highly amusing, as at our last medical appointment, my doctor actually refused to discuss the spanish version of "Do Not Resuscitate" which is an incredibly complicated system named "Advanced Health Care Directive" - that starts with an online form (solely in spanish) which has to be discussed and I think approved) with your doctor, then registered with the province and nationally. The concept is that any ambulance paramedic will check your name against this list before trying resuscitation if you drop in public. Ha bloody ha. There is apparently some weird opposing law that they "must" give the corpse an hour or so of chest-banging, irrespective of age, medical condition, personal wishes or possibility of "success". A friend witnessed this in acion on an elderly gentleman who had dropped dead in the street. Just when you thought you had made a perfect peaceful and painless exit, some jobsworth starts trying to pry your hands off heaven´s gate.
I have always made my wishes known on this matter, and have now gone as far as to write it up in my notes on my ´phone (in English and Spanish), but whether the people wanting to save me will agree is open to question. Whose bloody life is it, after all?
... and just to add to the incongruity of it all, I read in El Pais this week that the spanish government has, in principle, given approval to start to allow euthansia in this country.
I have lost count of the number of pet "owners" who have told me how they saw it as a duty to euthanase the animal when it was in distress and beyond help. They all also echoed the fact that they would prefer it if the same sort of thinking could go into their end too.
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