1st Edition
The Elderly Legal and Ethical Issues in Healthcare Policy
Aging is a public health priority that is becoming increasingly important in both developed and less developed nations, with individual health care providers and law-makers each facing difficult ethical and policy dilemmas. The complex issues physicians deal with include informed consent and patient decision-making capacity, use of advance care planning and decision-making by family and medical staff, and withdrawing and withholding life-sustaining interventions. Broader questions include: has aging been over medicalized? Is it ethical for older patients to receive less medical care than younger ones, through unspoken practice or formal rationing? Is there inevitable conflict between the generations over scarce medical resources? How should physician, patient and family confront end-of-life decisions? How have different nations responded to increasing numbers of the elderly? Have social values changed as to family responsibility and individual autonomy? This volume brings together the most significant published essays in the field.
Biography
Martin Lyon Levine, J.D., LL.D., holds the UPS Foundation Chair in Law and Gerontology, and is Professor of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California, USA, where he is University Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. Both an attorney and a psychoanalyst, he was President of the National Senior Citizens Law Center, USA, and was Chair of the Ageing and Law section of the Association of American Law Schools.
'having these literary building blocks assembled and physically available in one place wil be valuable for individuals seeking to attain or refresh their familiarity with the intellectual roots of the ethics-law-aging constellation.' Care Management Journals