End of Life Care: Two Generations Abandoned (Jane Gross)
A bioethics seminar with Jane Gross, longtime reporter for the New York Times and The Hastings Center’s first journalist in residence. Baby boomers are setting yet another trend. Their parents are living longer than any previous generation, many with chronic conditions requiring long-term care. A combination of demographics, medical advances, and perverse incentives in the health care system is leading these two generations to a reversal of roles on a scale that is unprecedented. The majority of the older generation will need help with activities of daily living for at least two years. Most of this care will come from their adult children, some of whom will end up caring for their parents longer than they cared from their own children. The evolving health care reform legislation offers little relief for caregivers.
