Care of the Aged - Biomedical Ethics Reviews Softcover reprint of hardcover 1st ed. 2003 edition

Jacket Description/Back: The growing population of elderly and infirm has given rise to serious questions about their proper care and treatment. What responsibility does society have to its aging citizens? What duties if any do grown children owe their parents? What should be done with severely demented patients? When is a person "elderly?" In Care of the Aged, an interdisciplinary panel of diverse thinkers and practicing ethicists grapples with these and other pressing moral problems associated with the treatment and care of the elderly-and offers proposals for solving them. Writing in an easily understandable style, the authors debate the propriety of Western society's current mechanisms for dealing with elderly citizens and consider the problems that arise for medical personnel and family members who provide such care. Among the issues discussed are disrespecting our elders, ethical dilemmas in community-based care, duties to aging parents, a feminist ethics of care, and the ethics of pain management in older Americans. Informative and readily accessible, Care of the Aged not only illuminates for the educated reader many of the key ethical issues arising in the care and treatment of the elderly, but also offers recommendations with real moral import. Table of Contents: Enter the Elderly Woman as Citizen: The Implications of a Feminist Ethics of Care Sheila M. Neysmith Disrespecting Our Elders: Attitudes and Practices of Care(lessness) Allyson Robichaud Hazards of Decoupling Respect from Rights: The Inclusion of Elderly Severely Demented Patients in 'Nontherapeutic' Clinical Trials Jennifer Jackson Resolving Ethical Dilemmas in Community-Based Care: A New Set of Principles Susan McCarthy Care Home Ethics Simon Woods and Max Elstein The Ethics of Pain Management in Older Adults Marshall B. Kapp Duties to Aging Parents Claudia Mills Filial Obligation, Kant's Duty of Beneficence, and Need Sarah Clark Miller IndexReview Quotes: "This is a timely work covering a broad spectrum of the ethical issues in elder care, from macro-level societal concerns to specific clinical challenges. . .the editors have done an excellent job of providing thought provoking, well written articles addressing a wide array of bioethical issues in the care of the elderly. . . The book excels as it addresses a wide spectrum of ethical issues in a serious manner. It addresses the scope of society's obligation to provide care for the elderly, which is a classic, well-known ethical issue. In addition, it sheds light on lesser known, though critically important ethical issues. The usefulness of this book lies in its breadth. It covers a wide range of topics, yet does so in a careful, focused manner. It is not a comprehensive treatment of the ethical issues surrounding the care of the elderly, nor is it a thorough introduction to such issues, and this is intentional. This book provides a careful analysis of specific issues spanning the range of caring for the elderly."-Doody's Health Sciences Book Review Journal ..".of considerable interest to those wishing to read around the topic of medical and social care of the elderly." - Irish Journal of Medical SciencePublisher Marketing: In virtually all the developed countries of the Western world, people are living longer and reproducing less. At the same time, costs for the care of the elderly and infirm continue to rise dramatically. Given these facts, it should come as no surprise that we are experi encing an ever-increasing concern with questions relating to the proper care and treatment of the aged. What responsibilities do soci eties have to their aging citizens? What duties, if any, do grown chil dren owe their parents? What markers should we use to determine one's status as "elderly"? Does treatment of pain in aged patients present special medical and/or moral problems? How can the com peting claims of autonomy and optimal medical care be reconciled for elderly persons who require assisted living? When, if ever, should severely demented patients be included in nontherapeutic clinical tri als? These questions, and others of similar interest to those con cerned with the proper treatment of the aged, are discussed in depth in the articles included in this text. The essays in this volume of Biomedical Ethics Reviews fall loosely into two broad categories. The first four articles-those con tributed by Sheila M. Neysmith, Allyson Robichaud, Jennifer Jackson, and Susan McCarthy-raise general questions concerning the propri ety of Western society'S current mechanisms for dealing with and treat ing elderly citizens. The remaining four articles-those by Simon Woods and Max Elstein, Marshall B."

Contributor Bio:  Humber, James M Humber, Georgia State University. Contributor Bio:  Almeder, Robert F Almeder is professor of philosophy at Georgia State University.