Islamic Center of Southern California

The Arguments of Islamic Law Rulings on Recent Medical Issues

Topic Twenty Seven

Problems of Old Age and the Rights of the Elderly

Definition

One of the achievements of the contemporary progress in medicine is the increase of the number of old people, which draws both attention and apprehension. In the last two decades, the world witnessed an unprecedented interest in human old age. This began with the decision of the United Nations Organization to devote the year of 1982 to study the issue of old people in the world. In 1983, the committee formed by the World Heath Organization to address that subject held a meeting with the motto, "Let life be fair to the elderly." The United Nations passed a decision to make 1999 the International Year of the Elderly.

In 1950, the number of old people in the world was not higher than 200 million persons. By 1975, it has increased to 350 million, and in the year 2000 it was almost 590 million out of a total world population of 6 billion people. It is expected that by the year 2025, the number of old people will be over one billion and 100 million people, which will mean one old person out of each eleven people. This is the phenomenon of flourishing in number for the elderly.

What draws attention is that two thirds of those old people live in the developing world, particularly in Asian countries. Naturally, the old, who have claims of gratitude, also have their health, social, and psychological needs which exhaust available care resources. The more convincing argument chooses the age of sixty-five as the beginning of old age.

The IOMS Discussion of, and Legal Position on, This Issue

The Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences (IOMS) examined this issue in its fourth seminar, "Health Policy: Human Ethics and Values," held in 1988, and then devoted its thirteenth seminar, "The Rights of the Elderly from an Islamic Perspective," wholly to this subject.

In spite of having several important items on its agenda, the fourth seminar made no recommendations. The following recommendations, however, were made at the conclusion of the seminar on the rights of the elderly.

1. Various measures should be taken to maintain people's health in their old age. These measures should begin with embryonic life and continue through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The network of social relations within the family, school, neighborhood, and community should be enhanced. The relationship between the elderly and their God has to be strengthened and their observance of religious teachings, encouraged. They should be protected from harmful practices and habits, such as smoking, drug addiction, and alcoholism. Moreover, anti-pollution measures should be taken.

2. The elderly should be taught health-enhancing habits, particularly balanced nutrition, moderate physical exercise, the pursuit of appropriate hobbies, maintaining social relations as much as possible, and spiritual chastening which gives one stronger faith and provides his soul with greater comfort and closeness to his Lord.

3. The elderly should be provided with appropriate care at all health care levels, including primary care and clinics. Health services should be adapted to be suitable for meet the special needs of old people. General practitioners should be trained to recognize and treat physical and psychological ailments which may have symptoms among old people different from their symptoms in younger patients.

4. Equity and fairness should be observed in the provision of health care to the elderly, whether male or female. Efforts should be made to set up a comprehensive health insurance and social security system that covers old people from all sectors - including farmers, professionals, and low-income individuals - who are not covered by existing insurance systems.

5. Objective and field research dealing with the physical and psychological health of the elderly should be encouraged and funded. All data that relates to their health practices and problems should be gathered, analyzed, and submitted to policy makers to help them make decisions and enact appropriate laws of care for the elderly.

6. Attention should be devoted to the health welfare of old people in printed, auditory, and visual media. These media should contribute to the education of the elderly and their families as regards their nutrition and physical activity, taking precautions against risks and accidents, and taking their medications regularly. The media should also have special columns or programs to entertain old people.

7. Courses that deal with health in old age, geriatrics, and care for the elderly should be introduced into the curricula of medical and nursing schools and other medical colleges. Geriatrics and nursing old people should be established as fields of specialization in various establishments of health education.

8. Religious values and teachings that promote filial piety and devotion, and respect for elders should be emphasized and consolidated, particularly through introducing into the syllabi of the various stages of general education accounts of old people, explaining their conditions, highlighting their family status and rights, and stressing the need to be dutiful to them, treat them with kindness and compassion, and visit them at their gathering locations. Meanwhile, students should be urged to adopt the kind of healthy behavior that guarantees for them to be healthy in their old age, and encouraged to stay away from smoking, drugs, and all other harmful practices. They should, likewise, be made aware of how to care for the elderly.

9. Steps should be taken to benefit from the treasury of experience and knowledge that old people possess, by allowing them to participate, as much as possible, in the education of new generations. moreover, decision-makers should consult old people with experience on public issues.

10. The role of the family in caring for its old members should be supported, and special facilities and aid should be offered to families that provide care to old people. Serious efforts should be made to have an old person live, on a permanent basis, with his own family or enjoy the care offered by another family or at a nursing home that keeps him in contact with his family and which has a family atmosphere, as well as all other conditions which are necessary for the old to maintain their dignity. Thus, they can be provided with the physical, psychological, and social care they need. Nursing homes should be located at various neighborhoods, so that each of them would serve as a nucleus that guarantees the participation of its occupants in the social, cultural, and religious activities of their communities.

11. Volunteer and non-governmental organization and all other civil social institutes should be encouraged to play a role in extending health and social care to the elderly of both genders, particularly those who receive reduced care from their families.

12. The attention of authorities and decision-makers should be drawn to the importance and special needs of the elderly. Efforts should be made to enact or supplement the legislation concerning care for the elderly in the light of Islamic Law. This includes raising retirement age, imposing a penalty for filial ingratitude, offering assistance to individuals who are unable to support the old people in their families, and setting up a higher council for elderly care in which all concerned parties are represented and which enjoys adequate jurisdiction and sufficient resources.

13. All kind of privileges and facilities should be offered to old people. These include in particular giving them preference in public places; having seats and places reserved for them in public transport vehicles, parks, theatres, and social and cultural clubs; providing means that facilitate their movement if they are handicapped or helpless; offering them appropriate discounts on fees; the fares for land, sea, and air travel; membership fees of clubs and all other establishments of social, recreational, and sports services; and the like.

14. Old people should be enabled to determine their own needs and given the chance to exploit fully the skills and experience they have gained throughout their lives in ways beneficial to themselves and to society. They should be encouraged to take initiatives, trained to be self sufficient, and assisted in carrying out activities suitable to their abilities and potential. They should also be helped to set up societies which they run themselves and in which they have the chance to prove themselves through active participation in social affairs.

15. Governments should assess the consequences of demographic changes on a regular basis and should take them into consideration when making overall social development plans. They should pay special attention to the expected great rise in the number of old people, particularly old women, and take the appropriate measures to deal with this expected change.

16. Respectful terms should be used in addressing, or referring to, the elderly.

17. An old person should be prepared psychologically before he reaches the day of retirement to spare him any psychological trauma that he may suffer as a result of isolation and unemployment.

18. Philanthropists should be encouraged to devote endowments for elderly care.

19. The Islamic Organization of Medical Sciences (IOMS) is called upon to sponsor the publication of a book on "Rulings for the Elderly," which explains worship practices, transactions, and all other rulings related to old people.

20. The Islamic Conference Organization and the Islamic Organization for Education, Sciences, and Culture are called upon to issue and publish, in collaboration with the IOMS, a document on the rights of the Elderly from an Islamic perspective. Islamic Center of Southern California