Geronticide: Killing the Elderly

Geronticide: Killing the Elderly......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgements......Page 9
Introduction......Page 12
Is longer life possible?......Page 14
Science and increasing the lifespan......Page 16
Ageing and decline: Consequences of extending the lifespan......Page 18
Outline of the book......Page 22
Geronticide and the elderly: Definitions......Page 23
2. Death by Demography and Longevity......Page 28
The Problem of Longevity......Page 29
Population ageing in Western society......Page 30
Non-industrial societies and the demographic time bomb......Page 32
The dependency ratio and the social crisis......Page 33
Gender and the demography of ageing......Page 34
Social class and demography......Page 36
Ethnicity and the ageing population......Page 37
Demography and a finite food supply......Page 38
The social costs of the increasing elderly dependent population......Page 39
The cost of care......Page 42
Death-hastening by rationing......Page 44
Depression and self-killing amongst the elderly......Page 48
Limitations to the demographic time bomb thesis......Page 50
Responding to the critics......Page 52
Continuity in geronticide......Page 53
Political economy: The elderly as non-producers......Page 56
Insights from patriarchy and from Marxist studies......Page 58
Nostalgia over primitive society......Page 60
The hunter-gatherer thesis......Page 61
The young-old versus the old-old......Page 63
Death-hastening in primitive society......Page 64
Ritual demarcation allowing geronticide: Concluding liminal status......Page 67
The liminal status passage......Page 68
Infanticide and geronticide......Page 69
Criticisms of political economy......Page 71
Introduction......Page 79
The modernisation process......Page 81
Modernisation and social differentiation......Page 83
Modernisation and convergence......Page 85
Ageist ideology’s contribution to death-hastening......Page 88
Inequality and uneven exposure to geronticide......Page 106
5. Death by Degrees: Bureaucratisation in Care Institutions......Page 109
Introduction: The bureaucratisation of death......Page 110
Dying in ‘care’......Page 114
Making ready for death: the community–institution divide......Page 116
Abuse in institutional settings......Page 120
Making death ‘ordinary’......Page 122
Ethnography of elderly death-hastening......Page 125
Direct death-hastening: ‘Do not resuscitate’......Page 127
Regulation and inspection......Page 129
Elderly care as a business enterprise: ‘Culling sheep or cattle’ 46......Page 132
Overview......Page 136
6. Death in Literary Discourse......Page 139
Killing the elderly in literature......Page 141
Elderly defence against geronticide: Ashliman’s collection......Page 144
Past to future: Science fiction and geronticide......Page 146
Death-hastening in the care and nursing home......Page 150
Ageism and the liminal status of the elderly......Page 151
Voluntary euthanasia......Page 153
Overview......Page 154
Introduction......Page 156
A brief history of suicide and voluntary euthanasia......Page 158
The situation today......Page 160
Voluntarism: Ageism, material and cultural pressures......Page 165
From physician-assisted suicide to voluntary euthanasia......Page 169
Aspects of the debate......Page 172
Vagueness of professional controls......Page 174
Pain relief ? Or alleviation of psychosocial problems?......Page 177
The long-term care alternative......Page 179
Patient autonomy versus medical autonomy......Page 180
Overview......Page 181
8. Dr Shipman, Social Rights, and Preventing Geronticide......Page 183
Professionalism and the case of Dr Harold Shipman......Page 184
Checking Geronticide......Page 188
References......Page 201
Subject Index......Page 212
Author Index......Page 219