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Challenges of an Aging Society

Ethical Dilemmas, Political Issues

edited by Rachel A. Pruchno and Michael A. Smyer

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In this important and timely collection, some of the best minds in gerontology and bioethics—including Nancy Dubler, Rick Moody, Andrew Achenbaum, Robert Hudson, and Robert Binstock—explore the ethical, social, and political challenges of an aging society. A unique combination of disciplines and perspectives—from economics to nursing, psychology to theology—this valuable synthesis of theory and practice provides frameworks and analyses for considering the ethical issues of both individual and societal aging.

The contributors address the major policy challenges of Social Security, Medicare, and...

In this important and timely collection, some of the best minds in gerontology and bioethics—including Nancy Dubler, Rick Moody, Andrew Achenbaum, Robert Hudson, and Robert Binstock—explore the ethical, social, and political challenges of an aging society. A unique combination of disciplines and perspectives—from economics to nursing, psychology to theology—this valuable synthesis of theory and practice provides frameworks and analyses for considering the ethical issues of both individual and societal aging.

The contributors address the major policy challenges of Social Security, Medicare, and prescription drugs as well as ethical issues ranging from individual autonomy to family responsibility to distributive justice. Specific topics covered include end-of-life decision making, family relations across generations, age-based intergenerational policies, and the reform of Social Security.

Contributors:
W. Andrew Achenbaum, Ph.D., University of Houston; Vern L. Bengtson, Ph.D., University of Southern California; Robert H. Binstock, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University; Christine E. Bishop, Ph.D., Brandeis University; Thomas R. Cole, Ph.D., University of Texas Medical School at Houston; Peter A. Diamond, Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Nancy Neveloff Dubler, LL.B., Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Msgr. Charles J. Fahey, Fordham University; Lucy Feild, Ph.D., R.N., Partners Human Research Quality Improvement Program; Martha B. Holstein, Ph.D., DePaul University; Robert B. Hudson, Ph.D., Boston University; Eric R. Kingson, Ph.D., Syracuse University; Ronald J. Manheimer, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Asheville; Kyriakos S. Markides, Ph.D., University of Texas Medical Branch; Daniel C. Marson, J.D., Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham; H. Rick Moody, Ph.D., AARP; Peter R. Orszag, Ph.D., Brookings Institution; Rachel Pruchno, Ph.D., University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey; Norella M. Putney, Ph.D., University of Southern California; Michael A. Smyer, Ph.D., Boston College; Bruce Stuart, Ph.D., University of Maryland, Baltimore; Melanie A. Wakeman, Ph.D., California State University, Los Angeles; Steven P. Wallace, Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles; John B. Williamson, Ph.D., Boston College.

Reviews

Reviews

An excellent book... Will be exceedingly helpful to clinicians and nonclinicians who are involved in the development of public policy.

Easily readable and well referenced... It is an excellent, well-thought-out resource for where the U.S. is on the issue of gerontology as it relates to ethics and public policy... Highly recommended.

A good survey of many aging society issues.

Some of the individual chapters are superb... contains some interesting original material as well as a useful synthesis of the literature... There is something in it for almost everyone.

This book is well edited and presented, which makes reading it quite straightforward, even while taking on at times some complex issues.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x
9
Pages
464
ISBN
9780801886485
Illustration Description
11 b&w illus.
Table of Contents

List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Science and Ethics of Aging Well
Part I: Autonomy and End-of-Life Decisions
1. The Legal Aspects of End-Of-Life Decision Making
2. Assessing

List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Science and Ethics of Aging Well
Part I: Autonomy and End-of-Life Decisions
1. The Legal Aspects of End-Of-Life Decision Making
2. Assessing Compentency to Make Medical Decisions at the End of Life: Clinician and Patient Issues
3. The Ethics of Long-Term Care: Recasting the Policy Discourse
4. Religiosity and Spirituality at the End of Life: Challenges and Opportunities
Part II: The Future of Family Responsibility
5. The Family and the Future: Challenges, Prospects, and Resilience
6. Long-Term Care, Feminism, and an Ethics of Solidarity
7. Aging, Generational Opposition, and the Future of the Family
Part III: Policies and Politics of Genrational Responsibility
8. Minority Elders in the United States: Implications for Public Policy
9. Allocating Resources for Lifelong Learning for Older Adults
10. Transforming Age-Based Policies to Meet Fluid Life-Course Needs
11. The Political Paradoxes of Thinking outside the Life-Cycle Boxes
12. Is Responsibility across Generations Politically Feasible?
Part IV: Health and Wealth: Whose Responsibility?
13. Social Security Reform and Responsibility across the Generations: Framing the Debate
14. Setting the Agenda for Social Security Reform
15. A Summary of Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach
16. Assessing the Returns from the New Medicare Drug Benefit
17. Prescription Drugs and Elders in the Twenty-first Century
Index

Author Bios
Featured Contributor

Michael A. Smyer, Ph.D.

Michael A. Smyer, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and director of the Center on Aging and Work at Boston College. He is the coeditor of Challenges of an Aging Society, also published by Johns Hopkins.