Paula Span, the author of When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions and a colleague of Jonathan Weiner’s at the Columbia University Journalism School, responds to Long for This World on the web site of the New York Times.
My theory is that the more intensely involved we are with caring for the very old and sick, the less appealing the notion of ever-longer lifespans becomes.
I can practically hear legions of New Old Age readers — hip-deep in elder tasks, in decisions and tussles and exhausting responsibilities — chorusing, “More years of this? Please, no.” A number of older readers have expressed similar sentiments here themselves.
But what if longevity didn’t involve an extended period of managing chronic illnesses and coping with frailty and disability, as so often happens now?
Read Span’s whole post (and check out the reader comments) here.
