In defence of dropping dead: the burden of extended care for aged parents is a heavy new phenomenon | Lucinda Holdforth

At 59, I was at last an orphan. I woke up with the most complete feeling of liberty and personhood I’d ever experienced Looked at one way, the modern longevity narrative is an inspirational story of human scientific and social progress. Looked at another you could say that we are now condemned to longevity – our own and other people’s. It’s placing a massive economic, social and psychological burden on us as individuals and as a society. There are now so many old people that new categories of...

By Lucinda Holdforth