Taking charge: death control as an emergent women's issue

Advances in medical technology in recent decades have produced an array of life-sustaining technologies which can delay the moment of death for almost everyone, making the timing and circumstances of death more a matter of deliberate choice than ever before in human history. Continuing proliferation of such technologies, their escalating social and economic costs, a growing population of older people, and the feminization of old age make right-to-die concerns ever more compelling. This paper points out how such issues are particularly salient for aged women as consumers of long-term care, both in the formal and informal sectors. The dual dilemmas of "premature" versus "delayed" death are also explored in each context. Finally, the implications of social change are interpreted in light of feminist health care goals.