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Thursday, June 25, 2015

Human-Only Cemeteries May Soon No Longer Discriminate Based on Species in Massachusetts

If Massachusetts state Representative Nick Collins, a Democrat from Boston, gets his way, you will soon have the option of being buried alongside your dearly beloved . . . cat.

A bill currently under consideration at the State House would allow for cemeteries to designate an area "for the co-internment of both human and animal remains," making Massachusetts the fifth state to allow for such inter-species burial arrangements. At present, human cemeteries in the state are not permitted to bury animal remains; likewise, humans cannot opt to be buried in an animal cemetery. This prohibition forces pets and owners to be ripped apart for all eternity, defying the heavenly edict "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder"--that was about pet ownership, yes?

Not surprisingly, perhaps, there is some opposition to the proposed legislation. Guy Glodis of the State Cemetery Association expressed that there were "environmental concerns, sanitary concerns, religious concerns" to consider. However, the bill's legislative sponsor claims that no cemetery would be forced to accept animal burials. Arguing for the other side, Cheryl Traversi of the Animal Rescue League of Boston, makes this point: "This is your daily companion. It makes sense that you would want to be buried with your animal." 

To learn more about this recent trend in other states, check out this NPR coverage

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Renewed Interest in an Old Advance Directive

VSEDs--short for "voluntarily stopping eating and drinking"--are being reconsidered as a method for managing the end-of-life care of patients who die with some form of dementia. With one in three seniors facing dying with mental impairments, finding strategies to allow for a humane death are becoming increasingly important. Historically, VSEDs have been used to hasten death in terminally ill patients suffering from conditions such as Lou Gehrig's disease, though in those cases patients are able to maintain cognitive function as they physically decline.

Presently, VSED requests for those with Alzheimer's are uncommon and untested as they may present legal and practical problems. A caretaker, for example, may want to honor a patient's request for a drink. Additionally, in many states, asking for water--even if the patient is demented--functions as a revocation of the advance directive. Nevertheless, ABA Journal predicts that with 5 million patients currently suffering from Alzheimer's disease, VSEDs will likely play an increasing role in advance directive plans.


Thursday, June 4, 2015

Retirement Taking on a Cyclical Pattern Today

According to a recent piece in Financial Advisor Magazine, the model of retirement to which we've all grown accustomed will soon go the way of the dodo thanks to a number of unseen forces over which we have no control.

The model of retirement that came about in the 1940s and 1950s looked like this: retire at 62 and receive a gold watch, a pension, and a Social Security check. Today's model varies from that for a good reason and a bad reason. The good reason is that people are living longer than they ever have, with the average life expectancy for a man in good health at age 65 now at 86.6 years and 88.8 years for a woman. This means, though, that people must postpone their retirement dates in order to have the funds needed to support themselves into their longer lifespans.

The bad reason is that automation is destroying traditional jobs, with one University of Oxford study predicting that half of today's occupations will be displaced by automation in the next decade or two. This means that individuals' work lives will out of necessity take on a cyclical character: as careers become obsolete, new skills must be learned and new occupations must be taken on. People can expect to be in and out of the workforce for much of their lives and as a result will have to retire later in life.

The author of the article managed to express this rather grim news pretty cheerily when he reached this conclusion: financial planners should expand their traditional areas of expertise--saving for college for children, buying houses, handling insurance needs, etc.--to include a form of retirement planning which will help their clients "thrive in their new cyclic lifelines."