Challenges of an Aging Society

Rachel A. Pruchno is a professor at the New Jersey Institute for Successful Aging, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Osteopathic Medicine. Michael A. Smyer is a professor of psychology and director of the Center on Aging and Work at Boston College.

• List of ContributorsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Science and Ethics of Aging WellPart I: Autonomy and End-of-Life Decisions1. The Legal Aspects of End-Of-Life Decision Making2. Assessing Compentency to Make Medical Decisions at the End of Life: Clinician and Patient Issues3. The Ethics of Long-Term Care: Recasting the Policy Discourse4. Religiosity and Spirituality at the End of Life: Challenges and OpportunitiesPart II: The Future of Family Responsibility5. The Family and the Future: Challenges, Prospects, and Resilience6. Long-Term Care, Feminism, and an Ethics of Solidarity7. Aging, Generational Opposition, and the Future of the FamilyPart III: Policies and Politics of Genrational Responsibility8. Minority Elders in the United States: Implications for Public Policy9. Allocating Resources for Lifelong Learning for Older Adults10. Transforming Age-Based Policies to Meet Fluid Life-Course Needs11. The Political Paradoxes of Thinking outside the Life-Cycle Boxes12. Is Responsibility across Generations Politically Feasible?Part IV: Health and Wealth: Whose Responsibility?13. Social Security Reform and Responsibility across the Generations: Framing the Debate14. Setting the Agenda for Social Security Reform15. A Summary of Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach16. Assessing the Returns from the New Medicare Drug Benefit17. Prescription Drugs and Elders in the Twenty-first CenturyIndex

An excellent book... Will be exceedingly helpful to clinicians and nonclinicians who are involved in the development of public policy. JAMA 2008 Easily readable and well referenced... It is an excellent, well-thought-out resource for where the U.S. is on the issue of gerontology as it relates to ethics and public policy... Highly recommended. Choice 2008 A good survey of many aging society issues. Future Survey 2007 Some of the individual chapters are superb... contains some interesting original material as well as a useful synthesis of the literature... There is something in it for almost everyone. New England Journal of Medicine 2008 This book is well edited and presented, which makes reading it quite straightforward, even while taking on at times some complex issues. -- Karen Le Ball Age and Ageing 2008 This book... is unique in that it explores issues and challenges at hand with the current aging society through an 'ethical' lens, and brings together experts in a wide range of fields covering sociobiology, social work, economics, public policy, theology, public health, bioethics, nursing and neurology -- Erica Yoonkyung Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 2009 There is something for everyone in this collection -- John Bond Aging and Society 2008 It is a compilation of multiple thought-provoking analyses of the status of elderly and the aging, and includes current and future ramifications. -- Susan Wegener Inside GCM 2008