Respect for Equality and the Treatment of the Elderly: Declarations of Human Rights and Age-Based Rationing

Abstract

A demographic revolution is taking place in Europe and worldwide. According to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, the number of people aged 60 and over is growing faster than any other age group. This change in the population structure affects disease patterns and is deemed to cause an increase in the demands on healthcare systems. This raises concerns about the ethics of healthcare delivery (among others). What criteria should direct healthcare distribution? Is it right to meet the demands of an ageing population, to the detriment of the younger strata of population?This paper has been written thanks to the support of the European Union, which has sponsored my project on ageism with a Postdoctoral Marie Curie Fellowship. More details on this project are available at the website http://les.man.ac.uk/simona/. I thank Prof. John Harris for our discussions on the topic and for his comments on this paper.