ABSTRACT
The demographic shift to an older population is portrayed negatively in the media, adding to the belief that old age is an undesirable phase of life marked primarily by loss. This, in turn, can discourage the study of aging. If aging is a perplexing stage of human life, this chapter demonstrates that it is worthy of critical analysis, thereby revealing many assumptions about wellbeing and normality. The first part of the chapter critically examines the medical model of aging. While a focus on the biological and anatomical changes of aging is certainly beneficial from a clinical standpoint, it neglects other important aspects of aging such as its social and cultural dimensions. These aspects call for a broader analysis of aging. Feminist bioethicists and critical disability theorists are particularly aware of the ways in which bodies are assessed according to seemingly neutral norms. Drawing from these insights, an alternative model of aging is introduced and developed in the second part of the chapter. Significantly, the political-relational model is attentive to the embodied and subjective experiences of aging and does not rely on adulthood as a benchmark to evaluate wellness in late life. The model is of particular relevance to bioethics as it calls into question ideals of health and wellness, of access to adequate health resources and, crucially, to caregiving. As this chapter highlights, aging is theoretically challenging and deserves extensive study.
