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List of contents
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Mark Schweda, Larissa Pfaller, and Silke Schicktanz
Part 1: Conceptions of Aging and Old Age
1. "A Season to Everything"? Considering Life-Course Perspectives in Bioethical and Public-Health Discussions on Aging
Mark Schweda
2. Becoming Oneself: Toward a New Philosophy of Ageing
Thomas Rentsch
3. Third Age and Fourth Age in Aging Societies – Divergent Social and Ethical Discourses
François Höpflinger
4. The Nature of the Fourth Age as a Challenge to Aging Societies
Paul Higgs and Chris Gilleard
Part 2: Perspectives and Problems of Old Age in the Context of Medicine and Healthcare
5. Old Age, Potentials, and Vulnerability
Andreas Kruse
6. Competence and Cognitive Deterioration: Are We Paying Enough Attention to Ethical Issues?
Perla Werner and Silke Schicktanz
7. Opt In or Opt Out? Rethinking the Provision of Life-Sustaining Medical Technology to the 'Old Old'
Hsiu-I Yang
8. Not Growing Old – Gracefully
Søren Holm
9. How to Think About Age-Group Justice: The Capabilities Approach
Nancy S. Jecker
Part 3: Individual Provisions and Public Policies in Aging Societies
10. Final Decisions for the Final Crisis: Hopes and Hypes Regarding the Advance Directive in Germany
Kai Brauer
11. Preparing Existential Decisions in Later Life: Advance Healthcare Planning
Ralf J. Jox
12. Articulating the Case for the Longevity Dividend
S. Jay Olshansky
13. Paradoxes of Planning Later Life: Anti-Aging Practices and the Lived Body
Larissa Pfaller and Frank Adloff
14. The Visionary Shaping of Dementia Research: Imaginations and Scenarios in Biopolitical Narratives and Ethical Reflections
Silke Schicktanz
15. Solidarity and Family Care for an Aging Population
Ruud ter Meulen
16. Legacies, Generations, and Aging Futures: The Ethics of Intergenerativity
Stephen Katz and Peter J. Whitehouse
Index
About the author
Mark Schweda is Research Fellow at the Department for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, University Medical Center Göttingen.
Larissa Pfaller is Research Associate at the Institute of Sociology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and currently Deputy Professor at the University of Hamburg.
Kai Brauer is a sociologist and teaches empirical methods and sociology of aging at Carinthia University of Applied Sciences (CUAS).
Frank Adloff is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hamburg.
Silke Schicktanz is a bioethicist and Professor for Cultural and Ethical Studies of Biomedicine at the Department for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, University Medical Center Göttingen.
Summary
Planning Later Life examines the relevance of modern medicine and healthcare in shaping the lives of elderly persons and ageing societies. Combining the individual and social dimension, it discusses the ethical, social, and political consequences of increasing life expectancies and demographic change.
Additional text
“Planning Later Life provides an accessible and well-written volume for interdisci-plinary scholars and non-scientific readers. It acquires a reasonable balance between a width of perspectives and depths of discussing the implications of an increasing life expectancy."
MartinSand, Monash Bioethics Review.
