Ending Midlife Bias

New Values for Old Age

Nancy S. Jecker

Argues that ethical analysis reflects implicit life stage bias that favors midlife
Empirically and conceptually explains the sources of life stage bias
Shifts the focus to values beyond autonomy that grow more critical as we age
Explores the uncharted territory of old age and sets forth life stage sensitive values for later life
Gives an analysis of human dignity in terms of safeguarding central human capabilities

Ending Midlife Bias

New Values for Old Age

Nancy S. Jecker

Description

We live at a time when the human lifespan has increased like never before. As average lifespans stretch to new lengths, what impact should this have on our values? Should our values change over the course of our ever-increasing lifespans?

Nancy S. Jecker coins the term, the life stage relativity of values, to capture the idea that at different stages of our lives, different ethical concerns shift to the foreground. During early life, infants and small children hold dear the value of being cared for and nurtured by someone they trust—and their vulnerability and dependency make these the right values for them. By early adulthood and continuing into midlife, the capacity for greater physical and emotional independence gives people reason to place more emphasis on autonomy and the ability to freely choose and carry out their plan of life. During old age, heightened risk for chronic disease and disability gives us a reason to shift our focus again, emphasizing safeguarding our central capabilities and keeping our dignity and self-respect intact.
Despite different values becoming central at different stages of life, we often assume the standpoint of someone in midlife, who is in the midst of planning a future adulthood that stretches out before them. Jecker coins the term, midlife bias, to refer to the privileging of midlife. Midlife bias occurs when we assume that autonomy should be our central aim at all life stages and give it priority in a wide range of ethical decisions. The privileging of midlife raises fundamental problems of fairness. It also suggests the possibility of large gaps in the ethical principles and theories at hand.

Ending Midlife Bias: New Values for Old Age addresses these concerns in a step-wise fashion, focusing on later life. Jecker first introduces a philosophical framework that extends moral theorizing to older adults, addressing midlife bias, the life stage relativity of values, human capabilities and dignity, time's passage, the narrative self, and justice between old and young. She then turns to policy and practice and explores ethical issues in bioethics, long term care, personal robotic assistants, care of the dying and newly dead, ageism in medical research, the allocation of healthcare, mandatory retirement, and the future of population aging.

Ending Midlife Bias

New Values for Old Age

Nancy S. Jecker

Part I: The Philosophical Framework
Chapter 1: Values Across the Lifespan
Chapter 2: What Matters for Individuals in Later Life?
Chapter 3: The Preferred Account of Human Capabilities
Chapter 4: Time's Passage and the Narrative Self
Chapter 5: Justice Between Old and Young
Part II: Policy and Practice
Chapter 6: Healthcare Across the Lifespan
Chapter 7: Who Cares?
Chapter 8: What Cares?
Chapter 9: Ageism
Chapter 10: The Dying, the Newly Dead, and the Long Gone
Chapter 11: Future People
Chapter 12: Conclusion

Ending Midlife Bias

New Values for Old Age

Nancy S. Jecker

Author Information

Nancy S. Jecker, Professor of Bioethics & Humanities, School of Medicine, School of Law, and Department of Philosophy, University of Washington

Nancy S. Jecker is a Professor of bioethics and philosophy at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Department of Bioethics and Humanities. She holds a Visiting Professorship at the University of Johannesburg, African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, and past visiting professorships at the National University of Singapore Center for Biomedical Ethics and the Chinese University of Hong Kong Centre for Bioethics. She is a three-time Rockefeller Foundation awardee, two-time National Endowment for the Humanities awardee, Brocher Foundation Visiting Researcher, and Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science International Fellow. Dr. Jecker was elected to the board of directors for the International Association of Bioethics (2019-2021) and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (2017-2019).

Ending Midlife Bias

New Values for Old Age

Nancy S. Jecker

Reviews and Awards

"The book is clearly written, thoroughly referenced, historically grounded, and thought provoking. Jecker's text will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in bioethics or aging who is willing to question the dominance customarily given to autonomy across the life-span. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. General readers." - M. D. Lagerwey, Western Michigan University

"Jecker...provides an in-depth, scholarly analysis of Western bioethics values considered across the life-span, but the emphasis is on old age. Jecker's main argument is that values other than autonomy should be given more weight in stages other than midlife, and that failure to do so harms individuals and societies...The author builds her arguments logically, anticipating objections and systematically addressing them with ethical humility. The book is clearly written, thoroughly referenced, historically grounded, and thought provoking. Jecker's text will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in bioethics or aging who is willing to question the dominance customarily given to autonomy across the life-span... Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. General readers." - CHOICE

"The first 50 years of American bioethics focused attention on autonomy in relation to suffering, medical technology, and the end of life. Yet the long last stage of life" - the decades from midlife through old age

"Ending Midlife Bias is a unique, precisely argued, and compelling book which challenges the notion that the values of midlife are the measure of a good life. Readers have much to learn from Jecker's original conception of justice between generations and the moral principles that support it. A superb piece of scholarship with practical implications for everyday life." - Thomas R. Cole, McGovern Chair in Medical Humanities, The University of Texas at Houston

"A comprehensive, highly readable examination of how different stages of life require different ethical analysis. Jecker's defense of often controversial claims is intriguing." - Paul T. Menzel, Pacific Lutheran University (emeritus)