An absorbing and intensely disturbing discussion of medical ethics and the aged.

Mr. Callahan starts from the fact that a tremendous amount of money is spent on medical

procedures in what proves to be the last year of a patient's life. He also points out that,

"by constantly trying to extend lives and find more and more ways to apply the

technology to the elderly ... we're not getting a happier group of elderly, we're getting

an elderly more fearful of growing old and more fearful of death." He finds the

expenditures essentially unfair to the young and would "set limits"--apparently an arbitrary age--after which certain procedures could not be done. Mr. Etzioni fairly

sputters with indignation but makes some good points about allocation of resources. We

may not wind up completely agreeing with either, but we will be left with a great deal to

think about.