The Lowest Animal: The Abuse Of The Elderly
The Lowest Animal
Miserly, vengeful, and foolish are just a few ways in which Mark Twain describes why humans are the lowest animal. There are many reasons to agree with him such as violence towards children, abuse of animals, insults of a racial, sexist, or religious nature, and indifference to the unfortunate. Although all of those topics are worthy to be discussed, this essay will focus on the abuse of the elderly. The capacity to abuse and take advantage of the elderly demonstrates that we as humans truly are the lowest animal. The first example that comes to mind is family members who’ve taken one of their parents into their home with the intention of taking care of them. While the children may feel a sense of responsibility to care for the parents, they may be doing so reluctantly. The children’s attitude towards caring for their parents may be positive at first, but over time they may come to be resentful of their parents. When this attitude shift takes place is when the capacity for abuse begins to show. The first obvious form of abuse would be that of physical abuse. This would take …show more content…
place in the form of bodily injury, physical pain, or impairment. There are many other types and forms of abuse. Another form of abuse is emotional abuse, which is an infliction of anguish, pain, or distress through verbal or non-verbal acts. Emotional abuse is one of the most common forms of abuse, but doesn’t get the same amount of attention as that of physical abuse. A child caring for their elderly parents isn’t the only situation where the elderly can be abused.
Many elderly people either choose or are put in a care home when the time comes where they can no longer take care of themselves. If it’s possible for a loving child to abuse their parents, then it surely must be possible for a paid staff member to commit the same acts. Staff abuses the elderly residents in these homes in many of the same ways as children who are taking care of their parents. Something that can be more prevalent in an elderly care home is the resident being neglected by the staff. This happens when staff either refuse or fail to give the proper care or attention to the residents. Another way that staff may abuse the elderly is to financially exploit them. This could mean that the staff is stealing money or property from the elderly
residents. It seems impossible to many that someone could possibly abuse an elderly person in any way. Most elderly people that are in the care of someone else are almost completely reliant on those people for their health and survival. It is just a shame that when a person is sometimes at their weakest, that we as humans can come up so short of showing genuine love and care. We as humans have the capacity to do many great things, but unfortunately we too can lower ourselves to unimaginable depths. It is these unfortunate times that would point towards humans being the lowest animal.
Miserly, vengeful, and foolish are just a few ways in which Mark Twain describes why humans are the lowest animal. There are many reasons to agree with him such as violence towards children, abuse of animals, insults of a racial, sexist, or religious nature, and indifference to the unfortunate. Although all of those topics are worthy to be discussed, this essay will focus on the abuse of the elderly. The capacity to abuse and take advantage of the elderly demonstrates that we as humans truly are the lowest animal. The first example that comes to mind is family members who’ve taken one of their parents into their home with the intention of taking care of them. While the children may feel a sense of responsibility to care for the parents, they may be doing so reluctantly. The children’s attitude towards caring for their parents may be positive at first, but over time they may come to be resentful of their parents. When this attitude shift takes place is when the capacity for abuse begins to show. The first obvious form of abuse would be that of physical abuse. This would take …show more content…
place in the form of bodily injury, physical pain, or impairment. There are many other types and forms of abuse. Another form of abuse is emotional abuse, which is an infliction of anguish, pain, or distress through verbal or non-verbal acts. Emotional abuse is one of the most common forms of abuse, but doesn’t get the same amount of attention as that of physical abuse. A child caring for their elderly parents isn’t the only situation where the elderly can be abused.
Many elderly people either choose or are put in a care home when the time comes where they can no longer take care of themselves. If it’s possible for a loving child to abuse their parents, then it surely must be possible for a paid staff member to commit the same acts. Staff abuses the elderly residents in these homes in many of the same ways as children who are taking care of their parents. Something that can be more prevalent in an elderly care home is the resident being neglected by the staff. This happens when staff either refuse or fail to give the proper care or attention to the residents. Another way that staff may abuse the elderly is to financially exploit them. This could mean that the staff is stealing money or property from the elderly
residents. It seems impossible to many that someone could possibly abuse an elderly person in any way. Most elderly people that are in the care of someone else are almost completely reliant on those people for their health and survival. It is just a shame that when a person is sometimes at their weakest, that we as humans can come up so short of showing genuine love and care. We as humans have the capacity to do many great things, but unfortunately we too can lower ourselves to unimaginable depths. It is these unfortunate times that would point towards humans being the lowest animal.