Geronticide: Killing the Elderly

(Jessica Kingsley Publishers) Queen's Univ. of Belfast, UK. Draws upon anthropological, literary, historical and contemporary sources to debate ethical issues surrounding the voluntary or involuntary killing of the elderly. Places the debate outside institutional walls into a wider social and historical context. For anyone working with the elderly. Softcover.

Mike Brogden is a Professor of Criminal Justice at the Queen's University of Belfast.

Acknowledgements

10

(1)

Living too Long?

11

(16)

Introduction

11

(2)

The social context of ageing and geronticide

13

(1)

Is longer life possible?

13

(2)

Science and increasing the lifespan

15

(2)

Ageing and decline: Consequences of extending the lifespan

17

(4)

Outline of the book

21

(1)

Geronticide and the elderly: Definitions

22

(5)

Death by Demography and Longevity

27

(28)

The problem of longevity

28

(1)

Population ageing in Western society

29

(2)

Non-industrial societies and the demographic time-bomb

31

(1)

The dependency ratio and the social crisis

32

(1)

Gender and the demography of ageing

33

(2)

Social class and demography

35

(1)

Ethnicity and the ageing population

36

(1)

Demography and a finite food supply

37

(1)

The social costs of the increasing elderly dependent population

38

(3)

The cost of care

41

(2)

Death-hastening by rationing

43

(4)

Depression and self-killing amongst the elderly

47

(2)

Limitations to the demographic time bomb thesis

49

(2)

Responding to the critics

51

(1)

Continuity in geronticide

52

(3)

Death by Social Obligation: The Political Economy Thesis

55

(23)

Political economy: The elderly as non-producers

55

(2)

Insights from patriarchy and Marxist studies

57

(2)

Nostalgia over primitive society

59

(1)

The hunter-gatherer thesis

60

(2)

The young-old versus the old-old

62

(1)

Death-hastening in primitive society

63

(3)

Ritual demarcation allowing geronticide: Concluding liminal status

66

(1)

The liminal status passage

67

(1)

Infanticide and geronticide

68

(2)

Criticisms of political economy

70

(8)

Death by Attrition: Modernisation and the Workhouse

78

(30)

Introduction

78

(2)

The modernisation process

80

(2)

Modernisation and social differntiation

82

(2)

Modernisation and convergence

84

(3)

Ageist ideology's contribution to death-hastening

87

(3)

The critique: Social history as uneven

90

(15)

Inequality and uneven exposure to death-hastening

105

(3)

Death by Degrees: Bureaucratisation in Care Institutions

108

(30)

Introduction: The bureaucratisation of death

109

(4)

Dying in 'care'

113

(2)

Making ready for death: The community-institution divide

115

(4)

Abuse in institutional settings

119

(2)

Making death `ordinary'

121

(3)

Ethnography of elderly death-hastening

124

(2)

Direct death-hastening: `Do not resuscitate'

126

(2)

Regulation and inspection

128

(3)

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

131

(4)

Overview

135

(3)

Death in Literary Discourse

138

(17)

Killing the elderly in literature

140

(3)

Elderly defence against geronticide: Ashliman's collection

143

(2)

Past to future: Science fiction and geronticide

145

(4)

Death-hastening in the care and nursing home

149

(1)

Ageism and the liminal status of the elderly

150

(2)

Voluntary euthanasia

152

(1)

Overview

153

(2)

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

155

(27)

Introduction

155

(2)

A brief history of suicide and euthanasia

157

(2)

The situation today

159

(5)

Voluntarism: Ageism, material and cultural pressures

164

(4)

From physician-assisted suicide to voluntary euthanasia

168

(3)

Aspects of the debate

171

(2)

Vagueness of professional controls

173

(3)

Pain relief? Or alleviation of psychosocial problems

176

(2)

The long-term care alternative

178

(1)

Patient autonomy versus medical autonomy

179

(1)

Overview

180

(2)

Dr Shipman, Social Rights, and Preventing Geronticide

182

(18)

Who kills the elderly?

183

(1)

Professionalism and the case of Dr Harold Shipman

183

(4)

Checking geronticide

187

(13)

References

200

(11)

Index

211

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Geronticide: Killing the Elderly

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials