Setting Limits: Medical Goals in an Aging Society | 
 enlarge | Author: Daniel Callahan
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.69
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 944449
Media: Paperback
Pages: 276
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0878405720
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.19897
EAN: 9780878405725
ASIN: 0878405720
Publication Date: November 1, 2003
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Condition: This is a trade paperback.
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Product Description
Sparking controversy in medical, social and professional circles, the nation's most respected medical ethicist strikes at the heart of America's growing health care crisis--the care of the aged. The New York Times Book Review calls Setting Limits "A pivotal work . . . the benchmark for future moral, medical and policy discussions of aging".
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| Customer Reviews:
 Setting Limits February 26, 2006
APK
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an important book. Many of Daniel Callahan's statements about health care for older people (75 and older, for example), if taken out of context, can be chilling (especially if you are 75 or older). But Callahan, a philosopher, views death as a necessary part of life. His opposition is not to health care for old people. Instead, his opposition is to the use of biomedicine for old people.
Biomedicine is expensive and interferes with the natural life cycle. Callahan maintains that biomedicine should not be used for old people who are seriously ill and who would otherwise die. Callahan questions the value of extending life without improving life.
Some readers might conclude that Callahan's approach is intended to cut the cost of health care. I think Callahan would disagree. Money might be saved if biomedicine were denied old people who are seriously ill. But, per Callahan, more money would be spent on improving their end-of-life care. Be careful of people who quote Callahan as a way to save money. They have minunderstood him.
Thought provoking and challenging November 25, 2005
Tara Nipe (Australia)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Daniel Callahan, ethicist and co-founder of the Hastings Center, has written a provocative book which discusses and evaluates the problem of resource allocation in Western society. Essentially, we spend a significant percentage of health care costs on the last few years of life, regardless of the quality of life being prolonged.
Dr Callahan warns that we will not be able to support these policies indefinitely, particularly as Western populations continue to age. The more tests and procedures we develop, and the greater our skill at extending life, the more expensive terminal health care becomes.
This is not a popular perspective. Many people believe that anything short of providing full available health care to all is morally reprehensible. However, it is undeniable that we are already unable to provide all people with even basic medical care with the current resources available. Indeed, we have only to look at the US to see a future of medicine - sky-rocketing costs, and massively disproportionate services depending on location and financial capacity.
As a nurse I have seen first-hand how focusing on prolonging life can be a worse, and certainly more expensive, outcome for the elderly. As an ethicist I find Callahan's arguments sound and convincing.
 medical ageism is extermination of the weak September 30, 2004
L. Milucky (California)
1 out of 11 found this review helpful
Callahan's arguments for healthcare rationing based on age are neither valid, nor logical. More importantly they are not consistent with the United States Federal Civil Rights laws that are enforced by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), nor are they moral in the international community by review of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
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