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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Ethics of aging

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Abstract With a steady increase in the number of older people worldwide and a much higher percentage of older people as part of the overall population, we are on the verge of becoming a mass geriatric society. These gains in extra years are not only a prolongation of individual lives but also result in demographic transitions that will challenge economic, social, and geopolitical systems and chiefly our healthcare systems in many countries. Population aging calls for the reassessment of existing policies and programs, in order to ensure a fair distribution of rights, burdens, and responsibilities between generations and to give the opportunity to older people to live fully a phase of life that should not only be seen as a long wait for death. Effective planning and fair policies should be based on a deep awareness of the priorities to be assigned, of the vulnerabilities to be safeguarded, but also of the prejudices that could affect our choices. Hence, an extensive ethical assessment on the issues related to aging is essential to clarify what values we want to defend as a society and what principles we want to respect, in order to implement transparent and consistent policies.