Word: parentless
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...things took a jarring turn. Miller's mother was dying of breast cancer when his father came home from visiting her and suffered a massive heart attack. "He was probably lying on the floor for five minutes before I found him," recalls Miller. Suddenly, at 37, he found himself parentless. "I was real close to them," he says. "I was pretty shattered...
Prevention is one argument for treatment. Community stability is another. Half of the infected in sub-Saharan Africa are women, and AIDS will leave millions of children parentless. Even if the drugs that are available can only preserve life by 10-15 years, those years are critical if communities are to survive. And beyond either of these arguments is a basic humanitarian obligation. With effective life-extending AIDS drugs available at prices below $1,000 a year, allowing millions to perish would be a monstrous sin of omission...
Community support must also be a feature of a global commitment to fighting AIDS. The 10 million children already left parentless by AIDS are stretching Africa past its limits. 30 million more orphans would be overwhelming. While treatment is critical to save the families of millions of these children, resources must be dedicated to looking after those without guardians. Unattended, few of these children will attend school or become literate; they will have few life prospects and little reason to hope. They must be helped...
...baby boomers travel through middle age, many will become parentless within this decade. Already, a quarter of 50-year-olds have lost their mothers, and half have lost their fathers. In a society that continues to shy away from speaking openly about death, it appears this group may not be any better prepared than previous generations for what experts say is a profound, life-changing experience...