Ethics and Aging: The Right to Live, the Right to Die

This book is a timely look at issues of ethics in ageing. It reflects the complexity of these questions, but develops them in relation to a single general theme: that of the involvement of the elderly in the design of social policy and the research which affects them. Moral problems involving the elderly are many-faceted: accurate understanding and social response demand some integration of experience, sensibility, and knowledge provided by different perspectives. The book incorporates viewpoints from gerontology, philosophy, law, theology, sociology, psychology, medicine, nursing, and economics. James E. Thornton is coordinator, Committee on Gerontology, the University of British Columbia. Earl R. Winkler is an associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia.