Our youngest granddaughter turned 18 last month. She has registered and is looking forward to casting her first votes next month.

As the patriarch of the family, my advice to her is to be wary of unintended consequences. These are results that are neither anticipated nor intended.

Years ago, I had read a story in a magazine regarding an elderly couple. A couple not unlike my wife and me. It was so long ago that I do not remember the title of the story or the name of the magazine.

The story took place in the future where all elderly individuals had to appear before a tribunal and justify their worth and value to society. If they could not, they would be judged unfit to continue using society’s valuable resources and put to death. The story concludes with the wife back in the reception area waiting, waiting, waiting for her husband to appear.

As a writer, I realize that even a fictional story contains a nugget of truth. I went online and found that certain societies had put the elderly to death. For some it was a tradition. For others it was a necessity. There is even a name for it. The killing of the elderly by society is called senicide.

Senicide has existed in various cultures over the world and has been practiced during different time periods. There is active senicide and passive senicide. Where active senicide was practiced, society put to death the elderly. In a passive society, the elderly were reminded that it was time to die and they were expected to commit suicide.

In the Arctic north, the native population would leave the elderly out on the ice to die during times of famine.

According to legend, in ancient Japan, elderly persons would be taken to remote, desolate areas and left to die.

Could it happen in our society today? Some would argue that the unintended consequence of terminating the existence of that carried in a woman’s womb is the beginning. Once we can terminate the unborn, it becomes that much easier to decide that the elderly who have no value to society can be terminated.

I don’t have an answer. But, if I am ever called before the tribunal, I trust that the interesting and thought-provoking articles I write for The Call will justify my existence.