when was a"release" not a punishment

Basically the elderly who have "lived" their life and of no use anymore and small children who did not meet the "normal" criterion of the Elders,

"There were only two occasions of release which were not punishment...release of the elderly, which was a time of celebration for a life well and fully lived, and release of a newchild, which always brought a sense of what-could-we-have-done".