Facing Limits

Advances in medical technology and the rapidly increasing population of older Americans are causing people to question the ethical limits of life-extending interventions. How do we weigh issues involving equity, efficiency, autonomy, natural life span, and responsibility for the financial burdens of health care for the elderly? In this collection o

Autorentext

Gerald R Winslow, Editor

Inhalt

Preface -- Proposals to Limit Care -- Intolerable Necessity: Limiting Health Care for the Elderly -- Intergenerational Equity in an Age of Limits: Confessions of of a Prodigal Parent -- Philosphical Foundations -- A Philosophy of Finitude: Ethics and the Humanities in the Allocation of Resources -- Ethical Options in the Care of the Elderly -- Natural Life-Span and Natural Law Ethics -- Clinical Perspectives -- Surrogate Decisions for Nursing Home Residents -- The Appropriateness of Life-Sustaining Care for Older People -- Can We Set Limits and Enhance Autonomy? -- Economics and Public Policy -- Is Global Budgeting the Way to Set Limits on Health Care for the Elderly? -- Counting the Costs of Lifesaving Interventions for the Elderly -- Cost Containment and Conflicts of Interest in the Care of the Elderly -- Changing the Debate About Health Care for the Elderly -- Gender, Equity, and Distributive Justice -- Achieving Equity and Setting Limits: The Importance of Gender -- Ageism, Sexism, and Health Care: Why We Need Old Women in Power -- How Age Should Matter: Justice as the Basis for Limiting Care to the Elderly -- Exceptions and the Elderly -- Personal Autonomy and Social Responsibility -- Personal Choice and Public Rationing -- Imposing Limits or Changing Attitudes: Strategies for Change -- Old Age and Euthanasia: A Theological and Personal Perspective -- Ethics and Aging: Callahan and Beyond