481
Everything Money Can Buy 503
Urban Legends of Aging
“Respect for elders was higher in the past.” 11
“Religion is good for your health.” 40
“Antiaging medicine today is making rapid progress.” 72
“Aging is not a disease.” 73
“Drinking red wine will make you live longer.” 80
“We lose a million neurons every day.” 111
“We’re living much longer today.” 139
“Prevention and health promotion are the way to save money in health care.” 142
“Health care costs are high because we spend most of the money on old people in the last year of life.” 184
“The 2010 health care law introduced ‘death panels’ and rationing of Medicare.” 187
“Only 5% of older people live in nursing homes.” 217
“Home care is cheaper than nursing homes.” 222
“We need more regulation of nursing homes to prevent elder abuse.” 252
“Older people are more likely to be victims of crime.” 257
“Advance directives would have prevented the tragic case of Terri Schiavo.” 289
“The gray lobby has a stranglehold on aging policy in the United States.” 341
“Poverty among the old remains a major problem.” 351
“Social Security is going broke; within a few decades, there won’t be any money to pay promised benefits.” 386
“Retirement is bad for your health.” 425
“The United States introduced age 65 for retirement, following Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who picked that number because it was his own age.” 443
“Boomers are the best educated, healthiest generation ever.” 467
“Ageism is the work of the advertising industry.” 486
Global Perspective
The Search for Meaning in Asian Religions 41
Blue Zones for Longer Life 76
Universities of the Third Age 114
Age-Based Rationing of Health Care in Britain 187
Singapore’s Law Requiring Support of Aged Parents 218
Ponzi Schemes Around the World 257
Assisted Dying in Europe 284
Vulnerable Elders in China 360
The New Swedish National Pension System 393
Older Workers in Japan 436
Aging Boomers 468
The Consumer Marketplace in Great Britain 489
Thinking Critically
Meaning in Later Life 43
Caloric Restriction 75
With Age Comes Wisdom? 112
Where Do You Come Down on the Rationing Debate? 185
Family Expectations 217
Would You Want to Be Protected From “Bad” Choices? 255
The Right to Die 284
Generational Competition 358
The Future of Social Security 389
Love and Work (and Love Your Work?) 439
What Generation Are You? 463
Drinking From the Fountain of Youth 487
Age Appreciation 510
Readings
1 The Coming of Age 47
2 Successful Aging 49
3 Vital Involvement in Old Age 50
4 The Measure of My Days 53
5 Why Do We Live as Long as We Do? 81
6 Vitality and Aging: Implications of the Rectangular Curve 82
7 The Compression of Morbidity Hypothesis: A Review of Research and Prospects for the Future 90
8 We Will Be Able to Live to 1,000 92
9 Don’t Fall for the Cult of Immortality 94
10 Age and Achievement 115
11 Creative Life Cycles 121
12 Growing Old or Living Long: Take Your Pick 124
13 Aging and Creativity 127
14 Why We Must Set Limits 194
15 Pricing Life: Why It’s Time for Health Care Rationing 200
16 The Pied Piper Returns for the Old Folks 201
17 From an Ethics of Rationing to an Ethics of Waste Avoidance 203
18 Aim Not Just for Longer Life, but Expanded “Health Span” 205
19 Medicaid and Long-Term Care 226
20 Aging America’s Achilles’ Heel: Medicaid Long-Term Care 228
21 The Case Against Paying Family Caregivers: Ethical and Practical Issues 233
22 For Love and Money: Paying Family Caregivers 237
23 The Right to Freedom From Restraints 262
24 Ethical Dilemmas in Elder Abuse 264
25 Understanding Elder Abuse 266
26 Elder Abuse: Sometimes It’s Self-Inflicted 270
27 Medical Aid In Dying 290
28 A Time to Die: The Place for Physician Assistance 292
29 What
