We live at a time when the human lifespan has increased like never before. As average lifespans stretch to new lengths, what impact should this have on our values? Should our values change over the course of our ever-increasing lifespans?Nancy S. Jecker coins the term, the life stage relativity of values, to capture the idea that at different stages of our lives, different ethical concerns shift to the foreground. During early life, infants and small children hold dear the value of being cared for and nurtured by someone they trust- and their vulnerability and dependency make these the right values for them. By early adulthood and continuing into midlife, the capacity for greater physical and emotional independence gives people reason to place more emphasis on autonomy and the ability to freely choose and carry out their planof life. During old age, heightened risk for chronic disease and disability gives us a reason to shift our focus again, emphasizing safeguarding our central capabilities and keeping our dignity and self-respect intact.Despite different values becoming central at different stages of life, we often assume the standpoint of someone in midlife, who is in the midst of planning a future adulthood that stretches out before them. Jecker coins the term, midlife bias, to refer to the privileging of midlife. Midlife biasoccurs when we assume that autonomy should be our central aim at all life stages and give it priority in a wide range of ethical decisions. The privileging of midlife raises fundamental problems of fairness. It also suggests the possibility of large gaps in the ethical principles and theories athand.Ending Midlife Bias: New Values for Old Age addresses these concerns in a step-wise fashion, focusing on later life. Jecker first introduces a philosophical framework that extends moral theorizing to older adults, addressing midlife bias, the life stage relativity of values, human capabilities anddignity, time's passage, the narrative self, and justice between old and young. She then turns to policy and practice and explores ethical issues in bioethics, long term care, personal robotic assistants, care of the dying and newly dead, ageism in medical research, the allocation of healthcare,mandatory retirement, and the future of population aging.

Ending Midlife Bias: New Values for Old Age

Politics & Social Sciences

Jecker, Nancy S.

Philosophy

Oxford University Press

The second edition of Bioethics: Introduction to History, Methods, and Practice provides readers with a sophisticated introduction to bioethics. It is well suited for advanced undergraduate and graduate students who plan to pursue careers in ethics and healthcare. It is also a useful resource and a comprehensive reference for professionals. Although the second edition of Bioethics retains the unique three-pronged approach used in the first edition, covering the history, the moethods, and the practice of bioethics, it differences in key aspects. Part I: Now emphasizes the early writing of bioethics Part II: now focuses more sharply on case-based ethical reasoning Part III: Now presents solely, clinical ethics. Several new articles delve into cultural issues, feminist perspectives, global health issues, and other recent empirical contributions to bioethics. Discussions of contemporary ethical debates are also examined, including a comparison of the 2005 case of Terri Schiavo to the first right-to-die case of Karen Ann Quinlan in 1975.

Bioethics 3e: Intro History Method & Pract

Science & Math

Jonsen, Albert R.

Jecker

Biological Sciences

Jones and Bartlett.Learning

The Aging Self and the Aging Society Ethical issues involving the elderly have recently come to the fore. This should come as no surprise: Since the turn of the century, there has been an eightfold in crease in the number of Americans over the age of sixty five, and almost a tripling of their proportion to the general population. Those over the age of eighty-five- the fastest growing group in the country-are twenty one more times as numerous as in 1900. Demographers expect this trend to accelerate into the twenty-first century. The aging of society casts into vivid relief a num ber of deep and troubling questions. On the one hand, as individuals, we grapple with the immediate experience of aging and mortality and seek to find in it philosophical or ethical significance. We also wonder what responsi bilities we bear toward aging family members and what expectations of others our plans for old age can reasona bly include. On the other hand, as a community, we must decide: What special role, if any, do older persons occupy in our society? What constitutes a just distribution of medical resources between generations? And, How can institutions that serve the old foster imperiled values, such as autonomy, self-respect, and dignity? Only recently have we begun to explore these themes, yet already a rich and fruitful literature has grown up around them.

Aging And Ethics: Philosophical Problems in Gerontology (Contemporary Issues in Biomedicine, Ethics, and Society)

Social Sciences

Humana

Aging and Ethics explores the many ethical issues involving the elderly, their care, and their role in society-urgent concerns that have only recently come to the forefront. There are now eight times more Americans over the age of sixty-five than at the turn of this century; their proportion to the rest of the population has almost tripled. And this trend is expected to accelerate into the next century! This aging of society has raised an increasing number of deep and troubling questions: What are our responsibilities toward aging family members? What can we reasonably expect in our own old age? What special role (if any) do older persons play in our society? How can medical resources be distributed justly between generations? How can institutions that serve the elderly preserve values such as autonomy, self-respect, and dignity? Nancy Jecker's timely new volume deals with these and other issues on four levels: the aging individual; aging and filial responsibility; distributive justice in an aging society; and philosophical reflections on aging and death. Aging and Ethics is must reading for professionals in a variety of health-related and counseling fields, as well as for the growing number of concerned laypeople who need to better understand the often compelling issues associated with aging today.

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