Geronticide : killing the elderly / Mike Brogden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brogden, Michael.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Age discrimination--United States.

Age discrimination.

Euthanasia--United States.

Euthanasia.

Homicide--United States.

Homicide.

Older people--Abuse of--United States.

Older people.

Older people--Crimes against--United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (221 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; Philadelphia : Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Drawing on a variety of historical, contemporary, anthropological and literary sources, this book considers the present day debates about the sanctity of elderly lives and the question of euthanasia. The book shows that killing the elderly, voluntarily or involuntarily, has been a feature of many societies, from the primitive to the present day.

Contents:

Intro

Geronticide: Killing the Elderly

Contents

Acknowledgements

1. Living too Long?

Introduction

The social context of ageing and geronticide

Is longer life possible?

Science and increasing the lifespan

Ageing and decline: Consequences of extending the lifespan

Outline of the book

Geronticide and the elderly: Definitions

2. Death by Demography and Longevity

The Problem of Longevity

Population ageing in Western society

Non-industrial societies and the demographic time bomb

The dependency ratio and the social crisis

Gender and the demography of ageing

Social class and demography

Ethnicity and the ageing population

Demography and a finite food supply

The social costs of the increasing elderly dependent population

The cost of care

Death-hastening by rationing

Depression and self-killing amongst the elderly

Limitations to the demographic time bomb thesis

Responding to the critics

Continuity in geronticide

3. Death by Social Obligation: The Political Economy Thesis

Political economy: The elderly as non-producers

Insights from patriarchy and from Marxist studies

Nostalgia over primitive society

The hunter-gatherer thesis

The young-old versus the old-old

Death-hastening in primitive society

Ritual demarcation allowing geronticide: Concluding liminal status

The liminal status passage

Infanticide and geronticide

Criticisms of political economy

4. Death by Attrition: Modernisation and the Workhouse

The modernisation process

Modernisation and social differentiation

Modernisation and convergence

Ageist ideology's contribution to death-hastening

Inequality and uneven exposure to geronticide

5. Death by Degrees: Bureaucratisation in Care Institutions

Introduction: The bureaucratisation of death.

Dying in 'care'

Making ready for death: the community-institution divide

Abuse in institutional settings

Making death 'ordinary'

Ethnography of elderly death-hastening

Direct death-hastening: 'Do not resuscitate'

Regulation and inspection

Elderly care as a business enterprise: 'Culling sheep or cattle' 46

Overview

6. Death in Literary Discourse

Killing the elderly in literature

Elderly defence against geronticide: Ashliman's collection

Past to future: Science fiction and geronticide

Death-hastening in the care and nursing home

Ageism and the liminal status of the elderly

Voluntary euthanasia

7. Death by Choice?: Physician-assisted Suicide and Voluntary Euthanasia

A brief history of suicide and voluntary euthanasia

The situation today

Voluntarism: Ageism, material and cultural pressures

From physician-assisted suicide to voluntary euthanasia

Aspects of the debate

Vagueness of professional controls

Pain relief ? Or alleviation of psychosocial problems?

The long-term care alternative

Patient autonomy versus medical autonomy

8. Dr Shipman, Social Rights, and Preventing Geronticide

Who kills the elderly?

Professionalism and the case of Dr Harold Shipman

Checking Geronticide

References

Subject Index

Author Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-210) and indexes.

ISBN:

9781846422768

1846422760

9781417504442

1417504447

OCLC:

567841817