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“Ethics, Aging, and the Coming Healthcare Challenge” was the title of the conference organized last Thursday by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. The day-long event addressed medical and economic issues in light of the new challenges presented by aging demographics and ever-extending life-spans. Aging in itself is not the main problem for society, according to Bishop Jean Laffitte, the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family. The problem, he said, is that “people are not ready anymore to welcome life." Laffitte encouraged young people to have the courage to get married and have children.
Bishop Jean Laffitte, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family: “Fear not, marriage is a path that is beautiful, it is a path that makes you happy, and it is a path that does not limit you in your life; on the contrary, it is a path which will open you to the rest of the world, and the world needs you, the world needs your love, your true love. Do not be afraid to love and create a family.”
The conference, co-sponsored by the Pontifical Council for the Family among others, brought together academics, practitioners, clergy, and policy-makers from around the world. It covered many different aspects of the changing demographics affecting health care, ranging from declining fertility rates to pharmaceutical research to pensions to hospice care. One of the main objectives of the conference was to help participants understand how both ethics and economics can work together to help us confront the challenge of aging populations.
That is why, according to Michael W. Hodin, Executive Director of the Global Coalition on Aging, who contributed to the conference, “we need to think differently about our life course”.
“In order to deal with this demographic transformation- he added - we need to go from a traditional life-work- retirement approach to a new one where you integrate living a fuller life of working, taking a little bit of leisure time, and then going back to work”. To put this in practice, Hodin had a suggestion:
Michael W. Hodin, Executive Director, Global Coalition on Ageing: “Rather than thinking about how we are going to refill the coffers of Medicare of social security, let’s think about how to use public policy to provide the incentive to be able to work and live differently. What about tax credits to corporations that keep people working into their eighties, and tax credits to individuals who want to work longer?”
