Home / Summaries / A Concise History of the World Since 1945 / life-extension-older

Science, technology, and the environment - Population and healing - A new old age

5 important questions on Science, technology, and the environment - Population and healing - A new old age

What was added to the social structure after the World War II?

Unprecedented gains in longevity for the majority of women and men, particularly in developed states, transformed the nature of the life course and added an entirely new generation to the social structure.

What challenge did the extension of life bring to society?

This remarkable extension of the life course represented both social asset and fiscal challenge.
A growing demographic of older adults brought important intellectual and experiential capital to both the private and public spheres. Seniors became important members of volunteer communities, remained among the most politically active members of the population, and were held up, especially in non-Western cultures, as repositories of wisdom and cherished custom.
But elders also encouraged disparaging stereotypes: the forgetful parent; the crabby pensioner; the ponderous patriarch; the frail, bedridden burden.

What demographic problem arose because of elder age?

As birth rates in developed countries declined during the second half of the twentieth century, the ratio between working-age taxpayers and a growing cohort of retired and dependent elderly strained the state's ability to meet its obligations to the latter.

What did long-term forecasts suggest?

Long-term forecasts suggested that growing public commitments in the areas of retirement benefit, health care, assisted living, and end-of-life care would require the infusion of significant new economic and institutional resources.

What deep ethical questions emerged due to people getting older?

Deep ethical questions emerged concerning the appropriate role of breakthrough medical interventions to extend life.

Could societies agree quality-of-life benchmarks to inform treatment options for older adults with chronic conditions such as Alzheimer's disease?
What was the ethical standing of radical life extension efforts involving technology to replace failing biological organs, what historian Yuval Noah Harari has labeled the "Gilgamesh Project," the scientific conquest of death itself?

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

A Concise History of the World Since 1945 | 9781352010206 | W M Spellman

View summary