Dimensiones bioéticas del cuidado médico en el anciano / Bioethical dimensions of medical care in the elderly

RESUMO

This editorial examines the challenges posed by the current epidemiological transition towards ageing of societies, against th background of medical technologies, life-saving, life-sustaining and life-enbancing. increased life expectancy among the elderly; compression of morbidity in the last year of life, cost containment in health-care delivery and humane treatment are elements of the dilemma facing modern medicine confronted to the aged. Technical success and medicalization of life are doomed to failure if the necessary reflection on what is proper, what is good and what is fair or just is not incorporated into everyday practice. These bioethical dimensions should be reformulated at the level of the predictions about the future, the challenges imposed by treatment of the elderly are seen as invigorating stimult for the countinuous improvement of medical care