Aging: concepts and controversies

Preface

Prologue

About the authors

Basic concepts i. a life course perspective on aging

Urban legends of aging : "respect for elders was higher in the past"

Suggested readings

Urban legends of aging: "religion is good for your health"

Focus on the future: conscious aging

Questions for writing, reflection, and debate

Global perspective : blue zones for longer life

Focus on the future : "I dated a cyborg!"

Focus on the future : late-life learning in the information society

Basic concepts II. Aging, health care, and society

Urban legends of aging: health care costs are high because we spend most

Of the money on old people in the last year of life

Focus on the future : scenarios for rationing : fiction or forecast

Urban legends of aging : only 4% of older people live in nursing homes

Focus on practice : long-term-care insurance

Focus on the future : genetic screening for alzheimer's disease

Urban legends of aging : older people are more likely to be victims of crime

Focus on practice : inheritance in an aging society

Urban legends of aging : advance directives would have prevented the

Tragic case of terri schiavo

Urban legends of aging : the gray lobby has a stranglehold on aging

Policy in the united states

Focus on practice: intergenerational programs

Urban legends of aging : social security is going broke : within a few

Decades,there won't be any money to pay promised benefits

Focus on practice : investment decisions for retirement income

Epilogue: finding your place in an aging society

Appendix. how to research a term paper in gerontology

Glossary

Bibliography 491

Photo credits 519

Index.

Prologue : America as an aging society

Basic concepts I. life course perspective on aging

Controversy 1. Why do we grow old?

Focus on practice : health promotion

Readings

1. Why do we live as long as we do? / Leonard Hayflick

2. Vitality and aging : implications of the rectangular curve / James F. Fries and Lawrence Crapo

3. Aging, natural death, and the compression of morbidity : another view / Edward L. Schneider and Jacob Brody

4. sunny side of aging / James F. Fries

5. changing face of health care / Alan M. Garber and Dana P. Goldman

6. We will be able to live to 1,000 / Aubrey de Grey

7. Don't fall for the cult of immortality / S. Jay Olshansky

Focus on the future : "I dated a cyborg!"

Controversy 2. Does creativity decline with age?

Focus on practice : older-adult education

Readings

8. Age and achievement / Harvey Lehman

9. Age and achievement : a critique / Wayne Dennis

10. Creative productivity through the adult years / Dean Keith Simonton

11. creative age / Gene Cohen

12. wisdom paradox / Elkhonon Goldberg

Focus on the future : late-life learning in the information society

Controversy 3. Does old age have meaning?

Focus on practice : reminiscence and life review

Readings

13. coming of age / Simone de Beauvoir

14. Vital involvement in old age / Erik H. Erikson, Joan M. Erikson and Helen Q. Kivnick

15. Successful aging / John Rowe and Robert Kahn

16. measure of my days / Florida Scott-Maxwell

Focus on the future : conscious aging

Basic concepts II. Social and economic outlook for an aging society

Controversy 4. Should age or need be the basis for entitlement?

Focus on practice : intergenerational programs

Readings

17. Growing older / Lester Thurow

18. Gray dawn : target benefits on the basis of need / Peter G. Peterson

19. "Generational equity" and the new victim blaming / Meredith Minkler

20. generational equity debate / John B. Williamson, Diane M. Watts-Ray and Eric R. Kingson

Focus on the future : walled retirement villages?

Controversy 5. What is the future for social security?

Focus on practice : investment decisions for retirement income

Readings

21. How to save Social Security : a balanced approach / Peter Diamond and Peter Orszag

22. necessity and desirability of Social Security reform / Ramesh Ponnuru

23. Social Security reform and benefit adequacy / Lawrence H. Thompson

24. Social Security for yesterday's family? / C. Eugene Steuerle and Melissa Favreault

Focus on the future : two scenarios for the future of social security

Controversy 6. Is retirement obsolete?

Focus on practice : preretirement planning

Readings

25. Achieving a productive aging society / Francis G. Caro, Scott A. Bass and Yung-Ping Chen

26. Prime time / Marc Freedman

27. busy ethic : moral continuity between work and retirement / David J. Ekerdt

28. Moving toward a creative retirement / Ronald J. Manheimer

Focus on the future : the U.S. wisdom corps?

Basic concepts III. Aging, health care, and society

Controversy 7. Should we ration health care for older people?

Focus on practice : managed care

Readings

29. Why we must set limits / Daniel Callahan

30. Pricing life : why it's time for health care rationing / Peter Ubel

31. Pied Piper returns for the old folks / Nat Hentoff

32. Letting individuals decide / Terrie Wetle and Richard W. Besdine

33. Aim not just for longer life, but expanded "health span" / Daniel Perry and Robert Butler

Focus on the future : scenarios for rationing : fiction or forecast?

Controversy 8. Should families provide for their own?

Focus on practice long-term care insurance

Readings

34. Medicaid and long-term care / Peter J. Strauss and Nancy M. Lederman

35. Shame of the rich : making themselves poor / Jane Bryant Quinn

36. fallacy of impoverishment / Stephen Moses

37. case against paying family caregivers : ethical and practical issues / C. Jean Blaser

38. For love and money : paying family caregivers / Suzanne R. Kunkel, Robert A. Applebaum and Ian M. Nelson

Focus on the future : genetic screening for Alzheimer's disease?

Controversy 9. Should older people be protected from bad choices?

Focus on practice : adult protective services

Readings

39. right to freedom from restraints / Robert N. Brown

40. Ethical dilemmas in elder abuse / Terrie T. Wetle and Terry T. Fulmer

41. legal perspective on elder abuse / Candace J. Heisler and Mary Joy Quinn

42. Elder self-neglect : a blurred concept / Dorothy R. Fabian and Eloise Rathbone-McCuan

Focus on the future : inheritance in an aging society

Controversy 10. Should people have the choice to end their lives?

Focus on practice : advance directives

Readings

43. Why do people seek physician-assisted death? / Robert A. Pearlman and Helene Starks

44. time to die : the place for physician assistance / Charles F. McKhann

45. Last rights : aunty's story / Sue Woodman

46. Neither for love nor money : why doctors must not kill / Leon Kass

Focus on the future : neighborhood suicide clinics?

App. A. How to research a term paper in gerontology.