Overview
Writing from a feminist perspective, Overall highlights the ways in which our biases about race, class, and gender have affected our views of elderly people and longevity, and her policy recommendations represent an effort to overcome these biases. She also covers the arguments surrounding the question of the "duty to die" and includes a provocative discussion of immortality. After judiciously weighing the benefits and risks of prolonging human life, Overall persuasively concludes that the length of life does matter and that its duration can make a difference in the quality and value of our lives. Her book will be an essential guide as we consider our social responsibilities, the meaning of human life, and the prospects of living longer.Synopsis
"Is a longer life a good in itself? Christine Overall carefully explores the philosophical tradition and current arguments to conclude that living a longer life is better. For those who believe that philosophy should concern real issues of everyday life that genuinely matter to our ability to live well, this book is essential."—Joan Tronto, author of Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care
"This terrific book should be read by anybody who wants to think clearly about aging, death, or longevity. It takes on the widespread opposition to systematic social attention to prolonging healthy life, laying bare some of its unsavory underpinnings (ageism, sexism, etc.). It also encourages us to think creatively about what longer life could offer us and humanity as a whole."—Laura Purdy, author of Reproducing Persons
"Christine Overall provides a precise, no-nonsense approach to questions of aging and death. Her analyses sparkle with clarity as she dismantles the arguments for a 'duty to die'; and her moral commitments give rise to workable, urgent social policies. Death is accepted as the termination of life; but not as its focus or meaning: in the end, this is a book that does not fetishize death; it celebrates life!"—Grace M. Jantzen, author of Becoming Divine: Towards a Feminist Philosophy of Religion