The Cambridge Handbook of the Ethics of Ageing

As people in the West are living longer and societies are ageing, there is a need to understand the ethical implications for the quality of life of different generations. This authoritative book delves into the ethics of ageing, combining philosophical depth, a clear scope and original contributions from leading authors.

We''re all getting older from the moment we''re born. Ageing is a fundamental and ubiquitous aspect of life. Yet in ethics, not much work is done on the questions surrounding ageing: how do diachronic features of ageing and the lifespan contribute to the overall value of life? How do time, change, and mortality impact on questions of morality and the good life? And how ought societies to respond to issues of social justice and the good, balancing the interests of generations and age cohorts? In this Cambridge Handbook, the first book-length attempt to stake this terrain, leading moral philosophers from a range of sub-fields and regions set out their approaches to the conceptual and ethical understanding of ageing. The volume makes an important contribution to significant debates about the implications of ageing for individual well-being, social policy and social justice.