The Elderly

Contents: Introduction. Part I Healthcare in an Aging Society: The Demographic Context: Making aging a public health priority, Robert Kane; Health care implications of an aging population, Michael Micklin; Healthcare policy in the later 20th century, Carroll Estes. Medical and Cultural Models: Aging and the limiting conditions of the body, Chris Gilleard and Paul Higgs; The medicalization of aging and disability, Irving Kenneth Zola. Ethical Choices for an Aging Society: 4 scenarios for an aging society, Harry R. Moody; Introduction: the frame of nature, gerontology and law, Martin Lyon Levine. Part II Decision-Making for the Older Patient: Ethical issues in geriatrics: a guide for clinicians, Paul S. Mueller, C. Christopher Hook and Kevin C. Fleming. Consent and Full Disclosure: Some limits of informed consent, O. O'Neill; Consent to medical treatment: the complex interplay of patients, families and physicians, Ruiping Fan and Julia Tao. Competence: Mental incapacity: some proposals for legislative reform, J.V. McHale; Pacing extremely old patients: who decides - the doctor, the patient or the relatives?, G.M. Sayers and H.W.L. Bethell. Deciding for the Incompetent: Japan's new safety net: reform of statutory guardianships and the creation of voluntary guardianships, Makoto Arai; Key issues in the ethics of dementia care, Stephen G. Post; Quality of life and non-treatment decisions for incompetent patients: a critique of the orthodox approach, Rebecca S. Dresser and John A. Robertson. Decision-Making at the End of Life: A combined ethics and psychiatric consultation, Cavin P. Leeman, Joel Blum and Marguerite S. Lederberg; Ethical issues at the end of life, Ernle W.D. Young; Futility judgments and therapeutic conversation, Terrence J. Ackerman; Ethical issues in end-of-life geriatric care: the approach of 3 monotheistic religions - Judaism, Catholicism and Islam, A. Mark Clarfield, Michael Gordon, Hazel Markwell and Shabbir M.H. Alibhai; End-of-life decision ma