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
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