ATTITUDES TO AGEING AND DYING
By Dr David Powell
Powell Charity Trust. 212 pages. £7.50
(www.hiskeyltd.com/bookworks)
ISBN 978 0 956 233 622
The book is packed with facts, opinions and attitudes on topics from the process of ageing, ageism, dying and death itself. As well as his own observations and opinions Dr Powell quotes a kaleidoscope of medical specialists and researchers, Greek philosophers, public health officials, charity directors and published pieces.
Dr Powell (aged 82) draws on his own experience as an NHS patient as well as his medical experience in pathology and haematology. His chapter on ageing is superb. He rightly nails ageism as being rife in society and in the NHS today, quoting Michelle Martin, charity director of Age UK, who pointed out that if older people are not valued in society how can they be expected to be valued in hospital? In an Orwellian twist, the chief executive of the NHS Commission Board, Dr David Nicholson, said that because hospitals are very bad places for old, frail people we need to focus on ways of keeping them away from them. Doctors’ clinical judgments are being over-ruled by targets and regulations. Dr Powell’s chapters on issues such as suicide, helping to die and euthanasia are clear and informative. He notes that once euthanasia is legalised its practice increases in that society, as evidenced in Holland. Who should decide and who makes the rules, he asks in Chapter 16. He also looks at the role of older people in the New Testament and in our churches today.
