Suffering Narratives of Older Adults

Exploring how moral phenomenology could provide fruitful alternatives to traditional frameworks in bioethics, this book explores new approaches to pain and suffering; evaluation and moral deliberation about treatment options and medical futility; surrogacy, decision-making and moral agency; and end-of-life experiences of care.

Mary Beth Quaranta Morrissey, PhD, MPH, JD, is a Fellow of the Global Healthcare Innovation Management Center, and the Program Director of the Post-Masters Healthcare Management Certificate Program in Public Health, Palliative Care and Long-Term Care, Fordham Schools of Business, New York, USA.

Introduction 1. The Dialectics of Suffering and Maternal Care-Seeking in Serious Illness 2. The Narrative of Angelique: Maternal Affordances in Suffering 3. The Social Ecology of Suffering in Serious Illness: Loss of Maternal Foundations 4. Suffering and Care-Seeking as Moral Experience: The Movement Toward Self-Actualizing and Spiritual Well-Being 5. The Narrative of Camila: Enacting and Reenacting Cultural Meanings of Faith and Fidelity 6. Living in Community: The Gifts of Grapes and Maternal Grace 7. Seriously Ill Older Adult Men in Recovery: Maternal Care Facilities 8. A Call for Broader Social Care Provision: A Maternal Turn in Ethics of Care