Thanks Anita. You and other list members may be interested in this debate on
Ageing and Dying at Foyles book store in London tomorrow night as part of
the Battle of Ideas festival. Best wishes, Tony
Contemporary attitudes to ageing and dying
Intimations of mortality
Tuesday 28 October, 7.00pm until 9.00pm, Foyles Charing Cross Road Satellite
Events
http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2008/session_detail/1481/
Social and medical advances have dramatically raised not only life
expectancy but also the length of time we will be fit and active. As
recently as 1910, average life expectancy in the UK was only 50 years.
Today, men can expect to live to their mid-to-late seventies, and women into
the early eighties.
This raises a number of issues, some would say problems, for society,
medicine and individuals. Experts worry about the burden an ageing
population places on pensions and the NHS. But, as American bioethicist Leon
Kass argues, ‘the challenges of an aging society are finally not economic
and institutional but ethical and existential’. Culturally, we seem confused
in our attitudes to aging and indeed death. Modern medicine is defined by
the struggle to keep the grim reaper at bay, and this constant striving to
put off the inevitable – to ‘rage against the dying of the light’ – is in
many ways laudable, expressing a celebration of life. But some fear we are
sacrificing quality of life by keeping people alive, no matter how old or
frail they become. Is today’s pursuit of immortality, and eternal youth, a
desperate reaction to our loss of faith in the ‘eternal life’ promised by
religion?
Is increasing the human lifespan a straightforward moral imperative, or
should we accept death as something that gives meaning to life? Does our
desire to live ever longer express a selfish attitude that neglects our
responsibilities to those who will care for us? What does it mean to be old
in a society in which people appear increasingly desperate to hold on to
their youth, and the elderly are seen as a drain on resources? Are we so
focused on living longer that we forget to live?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Venue: Foyles, 113-119 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0EB (map).
Tickets are available here.
Speakers
Tiffany Jenkins
director, arts & society programme, Institute of Ideas; co-editor,
Corpse Life: The contemporary preoccupation with human remains
(forthcoming).
Julia Neuberger
peer (Lib Dem) in the House of Lords; author, Not Dead Yet: A
Manifesto for Old Age and The Moral State We’re In; advisor to PM on
volunteering.
David Oliver
Senior Lecturer Elderly Care Medicine/Consultant Physician, University
of Reading/Royal Berkshire Hospital
Dr Liz Lloyd
senior lecturer, Social Gerontology, School for Policy Studies,
University of Bristol; author, forthcoming Health and Care in Ageing
Societies: A New International Perspective.
Dr Marcus Richards
programme leader (Medical Research Council) and Reader (University
College London)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anita Pincas" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2008 10:29 AM
Subject: [PSCI-COM] Older adults in the community
You may be interested in the rapidly developing field related to ageing,
cognition and health. With more older people than children under 16 in the
UK
[Office of National Statistics, 21 August 2008
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?ID=949 ] we seem now to have
not only an important area of social-psychological researcha but possibly
also
a new educational sector here. We do not yet know for sure, but there do
seem to be enough significant differences between younger and older adults
[wherever we place the boundaries] to warrant this suggestion.
Yet concedrn with the older population has not yet led to as many fully
developed professional activities as seem needed. To encourage that process,
we have started a new master's level module** at the Institute of Education
in which we investigate the many diverse social and psychological contexts
of
older learning. It is delivered by blended learning with the emphasis on
peer
collaboration.
If you are interested in widening your horizon to the possiblities, please
contact me for more information.
Anita Pincas, [log in to unmask]
Senior Lecturer, Institute of Education, University of London
** Issues in Educating and Training Mature Adults (50+)
www.ioe.ac.uk/courses/ietma
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