ETHICAL, SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF MEDICAL ADVANCES THAT ALLOW LONGER LIFE
It is arguably, the most important adaptive change the human species has ever witnessed: the creation of old age. In less than a century approximately 30years of life have been added to our life cycle. Old age has been increased due to advances in drug treatments, preventative medicine and surgical techniques. Yet, old age is a time in life that few people look forward to. Most of us are uneasy about it and have come to associate old age with dementra, poverty, physical frailty, depletion of medicare funds, loneliness and diseases.
I for one do not agree with this increase in old age, as there is consequences associated with these medicare advances are extreme and we cannot handle. Longer life doesn’t come easy, as it requires a lot social and economic support.
According to statistics stroke has been found to be the top cause of death in elderly people. The government spends a lot of money on setting up care homes and employing workers to take care of old people. There will also be an increase in medical practioners (doctors and nurses) which will cost the economy a great sum of money. The government tackles this by increasing taxes to cut the cost they will generate in increasing old age. Also in the long term most of the working class will be old people and this will affect the economy, because as we all know, younger people work faster and are more effective. This will leave the young people struggling for work. Since aging has been increased, retirement will be also increased to 75years. This means people work for longer and non-employment will increase in the UK. One may argue that experience comes with long periods of work but this effect of non-employment is not worth increasing old age.
Diseases also form part of the “old age package”eg. Stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, diabetes, cancer and heart diseases. Government spend lot of money in caring for the old people. Glucose tolerance progressively declines with age resulting in a high prevalence of type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance in the older population. The interaction of many factors associated with aging likely contributes to the alterations in glucose tolerance in old age. After physical maturity is attained the body undergoes degenerative changes know as aging. Aging is a progressive failure of the body’s homeostatic responses, occurring as a result of cells dying and renewal rates slowing or stopping. These aging changes eg.osteoarthritis of the knee joint and spine, Alzheimer’s disease are costly to care and the old people have to raise a lot of money to pay for the treatment.
Socially, longer lives come with more security for the old age, discrimination at work and in the public. Young generation who are unemployed due to longer periods in work by the old people, tend to mug and steal from the old people. The old age are vulnerable to attack and maltreatment. At workplaces, a survey of 1500 workers aged between 45 and 75 found that when employers make cuts, 67% of the employees are aged above 60years. Age discrimination is serious at work places and old employees suffer these unlawful behaviour. Also the government the government spend more money to employ extra police to protect the old people and watch the streets for muggers.
I talked to my grandfather about living longer and he gave me some ethical values on this topic. He said “he doesn’t want to live longer” and the reason was that God has given each and every one the number of years we are would live on this earth. He would welcome longer life if it comes from god and he firmly disagrees with man trying to defy God by interfering in God’s creation. He also quoted the Christian’s holy bible as saying “For Jehovah, the most high, is fear inspiring, a great king over all the earth, Psalms 47:2”.
Another point I also disagree is when innocent animals are used experiment to prolong our life. The new drug and treatments are tested on these animals eg.rabbit and pigs and if the experiment goes wrong they are killed. Environment protection agencies have spoken about these experiments but no particular concerns have been given to their suggestions.
It is estimated that the government now spend more than £4500 per elderly person and £800 per child each year. The skewed distribution of health care resources is not only detrimental to the overall health of the society; it is also unjust, because the elderly receive a disproportionately large piece of the “health care pie”, whilst a far greater number of younger people are deprived of an equal share of the nation’s health care resources.
As medical technology continues to advance, the rank of the old and the very old continue to grow, the costs of health care continue to increase, and the competition for scarce health care resources grow even more intense, our society will be forced to cut the prolonging of life.
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