A Massachusetts man was charged with manslaughter in Connecticut last week, in what is being referred to as the assisted suicide, or mercy killing, of his Alzheimer’s afflicted father.
Remarkably, the commentary sections of the on-line versions of the news story quickly filled with remarks from outraged caregivers detailing the difficulties encountered in caring for elderly relatives, especially those who are in serious physical and mental decline and living a life of unending pain. The overwhelming attitude among the early comments was that the son had done his father an enormous and loving favor by helping him end his life through a combination of pills and alcohol.
But as the news media and elder activists erupted in a firestorm of debate over mercy killing in America, an elderly Canadian woman’s life also is on the line in a courtroom in Victoria, British Columbia, and no one except her family seems to give a damn. Nonetheless, the case of Kathleen Palamarek, whose sons want her confined to an institution while her daughter and son-in-law are fighting to free her, could well set an international precedent impacting the future of tens of millions of American and Canadian elderly citizens.
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Yes, American and Canadian. Kathleen Palamarek was institutionalized in 2007 after she fell and injured herself in her home. After she recovered, her daughter, Lois Sampson, petitioned to be named what in America would be labeled her guardian, and was successful in obtaining her mother’s release.
But only three days later, in what was expected to be a reconciliation dinner with members of her family at Mrs. Sampson’s home, a squad of police arrived instead, forcing Mrs. Palamarek into an ambulance, then on to a mental facility, and threatening to arrest her lawyer when he tried to intervene.
Their authority rested in a determination by a psychiatrist that Mrs. Palamarek, a tiny but energetic sprite woman, was a danger to herself and others. She was kept in the mental facility over a weekend and then the finding that was used as an excuse to apprehend her was revised, saying she actually wasn’t a danger to anyone, but she should stay in confinement anyway. So she was sent right back to the same elder facility she had been released from the previous week, and she is still there, three years later.
I wrote about Mrs. Palamarek, an 88-year-old widow, on my website several months ago, and her case is still now at trial in the Canadian courts. But as I noted then, significant efforts are underway in both countries to “harmonize” Canadian and American laws regarding confinement of the elderly.
Ron Winter
If you are creeping up on the 65-year-old milestone, or have parents or grandparents in that category, this should be of major concern to you. I have seen the Canadian elder care legal system up close after two extended tours of B.C. last year to discuss Granny Snatching and promote my book of the same title. That system is not pretty and we don’t want it here.
The Canadian media occasionally reports on the cases of elderly citizens who are institutionalized against their will, who have spouses and other relatives willing to care for them in their homes. But if you want in-depth coverage of elder abuse by the Canadian government you have to use the Internet, such as the reports below.
Elderly woman locked in an Alzheimer’s ward: http://elderadvocates.ca/senior-unlawfully-detained-and-locked-in-alzheimer-unit/
An elderly woman apprehended by authorities and hidden from daughter for 4 years: http://elderadvocates.ca/myrtle-hofer-senior-apprehended-by-public-guardian/
http://elderadvocates.ca/senior-unlawfully-detained-and-locked-in-alzheimer-unit/
Public Guardian & Trustee refuses to assist elderly who are being incarcerated by the government in care homes: http://elderadvocates.ca/tag/public-guardian/
These are horror stories both regarding the treatment of the people involved, and the ho-hum, pass-the-buck attitude of Canadian government officials. If you think it can’t happen here, try researching the definitions of mental illness in America.
I can’t help but compare the travails of elderly people confined against their will with the intensely emotional issue of assisted suicide, which is legal only in Oregon, Washington and Montana. Even though more than 90 percent of the US states and countries around the world ban assisted suicide on legal, ethical and moral grounds it is certain to become an even bigger issue in the next decade as the elderly population explodes.
It’s odd isn’t it that we are having somewhat of a national discussion on the appropriateness of efforts to end a life, even someone else’s, with some measure of kindness and dignity? Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, family members are attempting to prolong the lives of their elderly relatives, while confining them against their will, so they can benefit from their relatives’ hard-earned assets. But unless a ton of money is involved, that issue rarely raises an eyebrow.
Granny Snatching – forcibly institutionalizing the elderly while stripping them of their assets – is a despicable act. However, many relatives who want to keep their parents out of institutions and living at home for as long as possible are finding that the enormous wealth behind savings, retirement incomes, Social Security and Medicaid have created a formidable alliance against them.
Elder care institutions, the medical and legal professions, and pharmaceutical manufacturers, all can benefit when an elder person is institutionalized. Conversations with knowledgeable elder care insiders, in both Canada and the US, indicate that corruption is systemic, from top to bottom.
I reported last week on efforts at the state level to update elder care laws, addressing the rights of caregivers as well as potential victims. These efforts have to be duplicated on the international and national levels. Harmonizing might be a good idea, but only if the laws provide universal protection for the elderly, rather than a path for governments and bureaucrats to abuse the very people they are tasked with protecting.
Ignoring these issues today will have a major negative impact in the next decade. Unless we collectively work to enact real elder care legislation we all may be faced with fighting for the lesser of two evils; loss of liberty, or death.
The snatching and family struggle described has been commonplace in at least the U.S. for many decades, though concentrated on the mentally ill, another population society has effectively segregated. There are well-developed legal rules and scientific criteria for the “danger to self or others” criteria, however as with all things human, the application is far from perfect or fair. An accused murderer with schizophrenia will almost certainly be found fit for trial and executed while an attractive personality with the same diagnosis will be viewed kindly. It is good to root out this injustice wherever it occurs; perhaps better to focus the conversation on over-arching patterns and then apply the solution fairly to all circumstances. The mark of a just society.