Chapter 17

This chapter deals with an aspect of life that many people fear: aging. It develops its discussion on how people interact with their families as they get older and how their role changes later in life. The beginning of the chapter opened with introducing some facts about our aging society and recent trends developing such as the increased life expectancy in modern times compared to that of the past society. Now-a-days people are living longer which make it possible for families to become multi-generational. Children now have the ability to form lasting relationships with their grandparents and even may get to know their great grandparents, unlike people just 100 years ago who were lucky to make it to age 40 alive. The people who are living longer lives also are taken into consideration--the gender gap recognizes that women out number men about around the age of 65 or so. This is because women are more likely to seek medical attention compared to men who are more likely to pass on sooner because of their unhealthy behaviors and lack of medical attention.
There are two factors that the chapter says effects a person's health later in life. These are physical and mental health. The chapter provides a few rules to consider to improve and maintain physical health: exercise physically, exercise mentally, lose weight and don't smoke, watch what you eat, control your blood pressure and avoid diabetes, and establish strong social networks. All of these seem pretty straight forward and are even things that people consider at a much earlier time in their life. The sooner you start forming these habits the better chance you have of staying in good physical condition later in life. Regarding mental health, the chapter discusses 2 mental disorders that effect people later in life. These are depression and dementia--Alzheimer's disease is a common form of dementia that society is familiar with.
One of the stereotypes that the book discusses in length is "that aging is a treatable condition that can be slowed or reversed." One way the book shows society's justification of this myth is the obsession with cosmetic surgery that many older people resort to in order to make their sagging skin appear more taught and to vanish their wrinkles. Before you know it you look like you're 40 at age 65! It's a miracle--a temporary miracle. The book states that there is "no known way to stop, slow, or reverse human aging." So all the money and effort we put into cosmetic surgery and lotions and creams that promise younger, firmer skin really are a waste of time. Why aren't people so willing to accept the fate that aging presents to them?
Retirement is an exciting time in a person's life where they can say goodbye to their years of work and labor and enjoy the rest of their life doing things that they've put off because of family, children, and careers. Unfortunately, recently there has been an increased amount of people putting off retirement and staying in the workforce for longer. The book even states that "according to economists and financial analysts, people who planned to retire at age 66 in 2012 will probably have to keep working for another nine years. They haven't saved enough for retirement to live as comfortably as they'd like to." What does this mean for the rest of us later in life? When I will be ready for retirement, how much longer will I be forced to put it off? Reasons that the book discusses for the delay in retirement includes Social Security in which Americans must work longer to receive full retirement benefits and because of the economic downturn of the past few years retirement savings have decreased.
Grandparenting is a big part of life as a person gets older. There are multiple grandparenting styles that include remote or detached which grandparents and grandchildren live far apart and see each other very little, compassionate and supportive which is the most common pattern where grandparents see their grandchildren often and are an active part of their life but don't seek authority in their life, involved and influential grandparents play an active role in sometimes imposing definite rules of authority over their grandchildren's lives, and finally advisory and authoritative grandparents provide wisdom and advice to their grandchildren. Grandparents also play different roles in the lives of their grandchildren; grandparents can serve as surrogate parents, when birth parents don't have the means or resources to care for their children on their own.
One of the final stages in life is death. People react to death in multiple ways and the book outlines 5 stages that Kuber-Ross proposes people go through when they are dying:
the first is denial, second is anger, third is bargaining, fourth is depression, then ending in acceptance. These stages have been criticized because not all people go through these stages, some older people may welcome the idea of death because they have lived full satisfying lives and are accepting of "their time to go." Others are accepting of death because they have experienced loss in their lives and see it as a natural part of existence. The book goes into different ways people are cared for when dying, one of which being hospice care that is widely known for caring for terminally ill patients in hospitals and can be moved to home-care as well. The book goes into how people grief and mourn over the loss of a loved on and how people commonly move on and deal with the loss in their life--some find new companions and re-marry, others pass away because of the "widower effect."


One of the most interesting things I found in this chapter is one of the modern ways people grieve over the loss of a loved one by turning to the Internet. The book mentioned that people turn to Websites to remember loved ones, sort of like an electronic memorial blog type of thing. People can comment and post pictures and memories they've had with the deceased. I think this is an interesting way for grandchildren to learn about people in their family who have passed on before they had a chance to get to know them because maybe they were too young to remember who they were. Another useful aspect of technology--where would this world be without such a thing?


The question I pose for discussion is about The Right to Die with Dignity section of the chapter. This section is small but mentions Oregon's policy "allowing mentally competent adults who declare their intentions in writing and have been diagnosed as terminally ill independently by two physicians to take a doctor-prescribed lethal drug themselves, orally, after waiting a period of 15 days." How do you respond to this? How would you feel about this if a family member of your were considering this route in ending their life? Is this ethical or is it assisting in suicide, even though it's only an option for the terminally ill, there are still chances for medical "miracles" of recovery. This takes away any chance of that outcome. Is it fair to allow ourselves to play the role of "God"?