Preface. Acknowledgments. Contributors. Paradigms. Changing paradigms of aging and being older: An historical perspective; P.M. Thane. Implications of aging paradigms for bioethics; G.J. Agich. Health in the 'grey' millennium: Romanticism versus complexity? J. McCallum. Social Responses. Protecting aged citizenship: Rethinking the 'mutuality' of state and civil society? T. Carney. Discrimination against the elderly within a consequentialist approach to health care resource allocation; D.W. Brock. Therapeutic jurisprudence and American elder law; M.B. Kapp. Finding the elder voice in social legislation; L.S. Whitton. European social policy for the elderly; N. Delpérée. Aging in developing countries: A public health and human rights issue; M. Peláez, A. Kalache. Cultural Dimensions. Aging and dying in cross-cultural perspective: An introduction to a critical cross-cultural understanding of death and dying; P.H. Stephenson. Old age, cultural complexity, and narrative interpretation: Building bridges in a 21st century world of diversity; A.L. Blaakilde. Foodways of disadvantaged men growing old in the inner city: Policy issues from ethnographic research; C. Russell, D. Touchard, H. Kendig, S. Quine. Reflections. The affective alienation of the elderly: A humane and ethical issue; G.B. Palermo. Reflection on aging: A time to live and to share; R. Pegoraro. Index.

This is the first of three volumes on Aging conceived for the International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine. Leading scholars from a range of disciplines contest some of the predominant paradigms on aging, and critically assess modern trends in social health policy.