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LET OUR OLD FOLK DIE WITH DIGNITY: HELPING ELDERLY 'CLING TO LIFE' A WASTE OF CASH

Royal Churchman The Reverend Maxwell Craig

Thursday March 27,2008

By Rod Mills

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A ROYAL churchman sparked a row yesterday after claiming the elderly should be allowed to die – so more money can be spent on the young.

The Reverend Maxwell Craig, a senior Church of Scotland minister, said vast sums were being squandered on “muscular medical miracles” to squeeze a few more years out of life.

Mr Craig, who is Extra Chaplain to the Queen in Scotland, claimed the money being spent on helping old people “cling to life” would be better spent on the younger generation.

His comments came as veteran Independent MSP Margo MacDonald revealed she wanted the right to end her life. Speaking during a Holyrood debate on euthanasia the MSP, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, said she should be allowed to bring about her own death if the condition deteriorates.

She said: “I don’t want to burden any doctor. I don’t want to burden any friend or family member.

I don’t want to burden any friend or family member

MSP Margo MacDonald

“I want to find a way in which I can take the decision to end my life in case I’m unlucky enough to have the worst form of Parkinson’s near the end of life.”

Earlier, Mr Craig ignited fury among campaigners for the elderly when he said that spending public money on over-75s often only maintained “a half-life”.

And he claimed most older people would probably prefer to die than reach the age of 95.

Lindsay Scott, spokesman for Help the Aged, asked: “Is he suggesting euthanasia at a fixed age?

“The vast majority of these people contributed to a national health system the whole of their lives, that guaranteed them care from the cradle to the grave.

“They have paid in to it so they are entitled to collect it. It is a challenge but one we will have to meet, not by telling people, ‘you are 75 now, it’s time to go’.”

Mr Craig is former general secretary of Action of Churches Together in Scotland, and past convener of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Nation Committee.

Twelve years ago he summed up the feelings of shocked nation days after the 1996 Dunblane massacre.

Leading a vigil at Dunblane Cathedral he said: “The stranglehold of untimely death has captured our community and broken its heart.” Now aged 76, he said that the problem facing the nation today was that too many deaths were not timely enough.

Writing in a local newspaper he branded spending on caring for the elderly “disproportionate”.

And he said the growing use of living wills showed old people had little desire to prolong life past the Biblical lifespan of three score years and ten.

He said: “Why should we want to cling on and on? Death is coming; it is natural and expected. We have no reason to fear it.

“All we should want is to die with dignity and at what for each of us is the right time, free of the muscular medical miracles our new technology uses to squeeze out a few more years for us.”

Mr Craig said he had formed his views after experience with different sectors of society.

He spent six years on the visiting committee at Polmont Young Offenders Institution and four as a locum minister in the run-down Raploch area of Stirling.

He added: “I am well aware of the needs of the young. I have seen evidence of their temptation to play with drugs and drink, their growing obesity, the continuing ‘born to fail’ destiny of so many.

“I believe that there is only one effective insurance policy to ensure the well-being of my age group.

“It is the health and happiness of the next generation.”

Last night Mr Craig appeared to qualify his statements, adding: “I am not saying we shouldn’t care for the elderly. Of course we should, but our well-being depends on the well-being and health of the next generation and not on squeezing out another few years.”

LET OUR OLD FOLK DIE WITH DIGNITY: HELPING ELDERLY 'CLING TO LIFE' A WASTE OF CASH

27.03.08, 9:04am

Perhaps he is being bold enough to actually SAY OUT LOUD what Gordon Brown and New Labour more than likely have been thinking.

We all know that Gordons lot give the elderly precious little and see them as a drain on the economy.

Abolition of the 10p tax rate has really hurt the elderly and their pensions have risen over the past 10 years by precious little by comparison to the ACTUAL COST OF LIVING . ( By reference to the cost of living I refer to hikes in the cost of things that actually affect their pockets NOT the MASSAGED cost of living figures that the Government would have us believe).

• Posted by: EmperorMing • Report Comment