Author's name: José Saramago

It is by no means fair to disregard the hardships of the living. It is undeniably true that death, whether due to inherent inefficiency or a calculated malice honed through experience, does not choose its victims according to the length of their lives. This behavior—and we say this in parentheses—ultimately leads, if we are to believe the various philosophical and religious sources that have addressed the subject, to instill in human beings, in a reflexive manner and through a series of diverse and sometimes contradictory influences, a strange effect of heightened mental arousal of the natural fear of death. However, death can never be accused of leaving an elderly person indefinitely forgotten in this world simply because they grow older each day, without any known merit or apparent cause.