NETHERLANDS - Welcoming the End of Life
I’m a member of the European Understanding Tiredness of Life in Older People Research Network, a group of geriatricians, psychiatrists, social scientists, psychologists and death scholars. We want to better understand the phenomenon and unpick what is unique about it. The network is also working on advice for politicians and healthcare practices, as well as caregiver and patient support.
Professor of care ethics Els van Wijngaarden and colleagues in the Netherlands listened to a group of older people who were not seriously ill, yet felt a yearning to end their lives. The key issues they identified in such people were: aching loneliness, pain associated with not mattering, struggles with self-expression, existential tiredness, and fear of being reduced to a completely dependent state.
Surgeon and medical professor Atul Gawande argues that in western societies, medicine has created the ideal conditions for transforming aging into a “long, slow fade.” He believes quality of life has been overlooked as we channel our resources towards biological survival. This is unprecedented in history. Tiredness of life may be evidence of the cost.
-studyfinds.org, 3 May 2023
Arno's Commentary
The above excerpts from the article authored by Sam Carr, attempt to document “tiredness of life.” A life without hope is hopeless. How different the Word of God views the aged. Psalm 92:14 promises: “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing,” Isaiah 46:4 adds: “And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.”
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
