Society has an obligation not just to seniors but also to their children and grandchildren, argues Healthmaker Bill Novelli. Here, he explains how addressing each generation's needs leads to the best policy decisions.
I think society's obligation to all of its population, all of its citizens is to help those people in need, to take advantage of people's skills and what they have to offer. So it's not just older people it's children, it's everybody. We have to think inter-generationally, we have to think about what older people want and need, what their children want and need, what their grand children want and need.
If we can do that, and we can make good social decisions, good policy decisions, then we will have a population that contributes to society and it benefits from society.
Bill (William) Novelli is a distinguished professor at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business and a former CEO of AARP. He discusses decisions about end-of-life medical care, regarding the medical community, patients, their families and society as a whole.
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