Coping With Methuselah

Many medical authorities predict that average life expectancy could well exceed 100 years by mid century and rise even higher soon thereafter. This astonishing prospect, brought on by the revolution in molecular biology and information technology, confronts policymakers and public health officials with a host of new questions. How will increased longevity affect local and global demographic trends, government taxation and spending, health care, the workplace, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? What ethical and quality-of-life issues are raised by these new breakthroughs? In Coping with Methuselah, a group of practicing scientists and public policy experts come together to address the problems, challenges, and opportunities posed by a longer life span. This book will generate discussion in political, social, and medical circles and help prepare us for the extraordinary possibilities that the future may hold.

Many medical authorities predict that average life expectancy could well exceed 100 years by mid century and rise even higher soon thereafter. This astonishing prospect, brought on by the revolution in molecular biology and information technology, confronts policymakers and public health officials with a host of new questions. How will increased longevity affect local and global demographic trends, government taxation and spending, health care, the workplace, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid? What ethical and quality-of-life issues are raised by these new breakthroughs? In Coping with Methuselah, a group of practicing scientists and public policy experts come together to address the problems, challenges, and opportunities posed by a longer life span. This book will generate discussion in political, social, and medical circles and help prepare us for the extraordinary possibilities that the future may hold.

Staying Alive explores the desire to live forever, which manifests itself in many forms and forums. Many throughout history have measured their self worth by the metric of how they will stay alive: one wants fame, another needs children. One wants to leave behind a personalized legacy, another wants to leave behind the world and enjoy the bliss of heaven. The author's self-expressed 'aim has been, simply, to write a readable book that will afford the reader an increased sensitivity to the many ways the desire for immortality has shaped history, philosophy, art, and literature.' The thought that this analysis of human longing and culture provokes transcends any one way of approaching these disciplines. It searches for, and connects, deeply personal pursuits with greater collective trends.

Living healthily for centuries is no longer a sci-fi prospect. It is very likely that the first person to live to 200 years in good health is already alive – scientific and technological advances of today are starting to produce medicines and treatments which tackle aging directly. The true debate is no longer about whether we can extend our lives and fight death – it is about whether we should. If advances in medicine and engineering protect you and others from aging, diseases, injuries, and accidents, allowing you to live as a healthy 25-year-old for as long as you wanted (where death could only visit you if, and when, you wished), should you say yes to this future? And what happens if enough people say yes? Will overpopulation be inevitable? Will we lose our identity as humans by relinquishing mortality? Will humanity be challenging the natural and divine order? Will we grow lazy and complacent? Will the divide between the rich and poor grow? Or is overcoming aging and disease a mandate of medicine and a moral imperative to aim for? Perhaps even our destiny as humans? In the same way push back on hunger, pestilence, and violence, should we end the cycle of suffering and death which aging brings to us all? In Should You Die? Augusto T.S. Cruz weighs in on these questions. The author methodically picks apart arguments supporting each side of the debate, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses, making the book an excellent primer for those interested in the discussion, and a helpful guide for those already involved.

We are now engaged in a movement that de-emphasizes the reliance on institutional forms of long-term care for disabled persons needing ongoing daily living assistance and converges on the use of non-institutional service providers abnd residential settings. In this latest edition of Ethics, Law and Aging Review , Kapp and ten expert contributors help us examine the forces and potential for changeing the long-term care industry (both positively and negatively) and address this paradigm shift from the inpersonal, public psychiatric institutions of the 1960s and 1970s to the present-day assisted living environments that have been fueled by economic, social, polictical, and legal forces. Most important ly, this volume identifies obstaclesto change and enlighten service providers, advocates, and key policy makers to the pitfalls that can largely interfere with positive outcomes as a result of long-term care deinstitutionalization. Topics explored include: Community-based alternatives for older adults with serious mental illness Failing consumer-directed alternatives to nursing homes Ethics of Medicare privatization

Many of the environmental and social problems we face today are symptoms of a deeper systemic failing: a dominant cultural paradigm that encourages living in ways that are often directly counter to the realities of a finite planet. This paradigm, typically referred to as 'consumerism,' has already spread to cultures around the world and has led to consumption levels that are vastly unsustainable. If this pattern spreads further there will be little possibility of solving climate change or other environmental problems that are poised to dramatically disrupt human civilization. It will take a sustained, long-term effort to redirect the traditions, social movements and institutions that shape consumer cultures towards becoming cultures of sustainability. These institutions include schools, the media, businesses and governments. Bringing about a cultural shift that makes living sustainably as 'natural' as a consumer lifestyle is today will not only address urgent crises like climate change, it could also tackle other symptoms like extreme income inequity, obesity and social isolation that are not typically seen as environmental problems. State of the World 2010 paints a picture of what this sustainability culture could look like, and how we can - and already are - making the shift.

"Examines the use of rationing as a means to curb health care spending, using the experience of Great Britain to highlight the promises and pitfalls of this approach"--Provided by publisher.

Since the mid-1960s, Alvin and Heidi Toffler have predicted the far-reaching impact of emerging technological, economic, and social developments on our businesses, governments, families, and daily lives. In REVOLUTIONARY WEALTH, they once again demonstrate their unparalleled ability to illuminate current trends and anticipate what they mean for the future. REVOLUTIONARY WEALTH focuses on how wealth will be created—and who will get it—in the twenty-first century. As the knowledge-based economy (a reality the Tofflers predicted forty years ago) continues to replace the industrial-based economy, they argue, money is no longer the sole determinate of wealth. The Tofflers explain that we are becoming a nation of “prosumers,” consuming what we ourselves produce, and argue that we have all taken on “third jobs”—work we unwittingly do without pay for some of the biggest corporations in the country. Using fascinating examples from our daily lives, they illustrate how our everyday activities—from parenting and volunteering to blogging, painting our houses, and improving our diets—contribute to a non-monetary economy that is largely hidden from economists. Writing with the same insight and clarity that made their earlier books bestsellers, the Tofflers present fresh, groundbreaking new ways of thinking about wealth.