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Setting Limits: Medical Goals in an Aging Society with "A Response to My Critics" (Not In A Series)

by Daniel Callahan (Author)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
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A provocative call to rethink America's values in health care.

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  1. ISBN-10
    0878405720
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0878405725
  3. Publisher
    Georgetown University Press
  4. Publication date
    March 1, 1995
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    5.48 x 0.81 x 8.39 inches
  7. Print length
    272 pages
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Callahan addresses the problems of aging in a clear, comprehensive, sensitive, and compassionate manner. This is a pivotal work that poses hard questions and proposes provocative answers. Setting Limits promises to be the benchmark for future moral, medical and policy discussions of aging."―New York Times Book Review

"Logical and persuasive. . . . Provocative, well-based arguments from a respected voice."―Kirkus Reviews

"A thought-provoking and heart-jarring assessment of medical goals and aging in the United States today."―America

"A thought-provoking, in some ways profound, work. . . . A morally courageous book, challenging current widespread assumptions that we should prolong life by increasing medical care even if the result is worsening health throughout the United States."―New York Review of Books

"An intelligent, profound, and challenging volume that should be assiduously chewed and digested by medical, legal, ethical, and policy professionals and all others who have a stake in the vital issues it raises."―Journal of Legal Medicine

"Callahan's book should be read―but very carefully―by anyone interested in aging, older persons, health care, and issues of morality in American society. . . . This book is likely to be a point of reference in such discussions for some time to come."―Robert H. Binstock and Jeff Kahana, The Gerontologist

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Georgetown University Press (March 1, 1995)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0878405720
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0878405725
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.48 x 0.81 x 8.39 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

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Daniel Callahan

Daniel Callahan

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Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
5 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

APK
5.0 out of 5 stars Setting Limits
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2006
Verified Purchase
This is an important book. Many of Daniel Callahan's statements about health care for older people (75 and older, for example), if taken out of context, can be chilling (especially if you are 75 or older). But Callahan, a philosopher, views death as a necessary part of life. His opposition is not to health care for old people. Instead, his opposition is to the use of biomedicine for old people.

Biomedicine is expensive and interferes with the natural life cycle. Callahan maintains that biomedicine should not be used for old people who are seriously ill and who would otherwise die. Callahan questions the value of extending life without improving life.

Some readers might conclude that Callahan's approach is intended to cut the cost of health care. I think Callahan would disagree. Money might be saved if biomedicine were denied old people who are seriously ill. But, per Callahan, more money would be spent on improving their end-of-life care. Be careful of people who quote Callahan as a way to save money. They have minunderstood him.
11 people found this helpful
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A Reader
1.0 out of 5 stars The Original Death Panel Propoasl
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2009
MSM (Main Stream Media) are lying through their teeth (unlikely anyone in that business who is poo-pooing the idea of death panels even remembers/knows about how this book relates to the current debate). Death Panels are a very real possibility. This book has been at the heart of such proposals for years. Many have been outraged by this book especially since its author's views on other issues have been adopted by the American Medical Association. A book that counters these views and sounded the alarm almost 2 decades ago is  Set No Limits: A Rebuttal to Daniel Callahan's Proposal to Limit Health Care for the Elderly .

Something wicked this way comes.
2 people found this helpful
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Kavyo
5.0 out of 5 stars If we had courage we would discuss this book in congress
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2011
Verified Purchase
Callahan approaches a difficult and controversial subject with both good thinking and feeling. He approaches the issue of dealing with the price we all pay by being unwilling to deal with our own mortality. His writing style is engaging and well- considered.
4 people found this helpful
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Tara Nipe
5.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking and challenging
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2005
Daniel Callahan, ethicist and co-founder of the Hastings Center, has written a provocative book which discusses and evaluates the problem of resource allocation in Western society. Essentially, we spend a significant percentage of health care costs on the last few years of life, regardless of the quality of life being prolonged.

Dr Callahan warns that we will not be able to support these policies indefinitely, particularly as Western populations continue to age. The more tests and procedures we develop, and the greater our skill at extending life, the more expensive terminal health care becomes.

This is not a popular perspective. Many people believe that anything short of providing full available health care to all is morally reprehensible. However, it is undeniable that we are already unable to provide all people with even basic medical care with the current resources available. Indeed, we have only to look at the US to see a future of medicine - sky-rocketing costs, and massively disproportionate services depending on location and financial capacity.

As a nurse I have seen first-hand how focusing on prolonging life can be a worse, and certainly more expensive, outcome for the elderly. As an ethicist I find Callahan's arguments sound and convincing.
9 people found this helpful
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Lynn Talmon
1.0 out of 5 stars medical ageism is extermination of the weak
Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2004
Callahan's arguments for healthcare rationing based on age are neither valid, nor logical. More importantly they are not consistent with the United States Federal Civil Rights laws that are enforced by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), nor are they moral in the international community by review of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [...]
4 people found this helpful
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