title: Oppressive limits: Callahan's foundation myth.
abstract: Daniel Callahan has not simply proposed alterations of important features of the health economy. He has constructed a blue print for society drawing on concepts of what is natural and appropriate to human beings. He is, in effect, establishing a new social order. Like any social order, Callahan's system has its justificatory schemes or founding myths. This paper offers a feminist examination of the functions that these four myths-the concept of a whole of life; the stages of life; a tolerable death; and a reconstruction of the meaning of the aged in terms of sacrifice-fulfill in Callahan's new social order. Callahan's concept of a whole of life reflects the power he assigns to nature, and the futility and harm he associates with attempts to repudiate biological imperatives. It introduces the stages of human life, tolerable death, and aging. The paper critically examines these concepts.
authors.affiliation: Philosophy and Women's Studies, Bowling Green State University, OH 43403-0222, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Dixon
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001293:Attitude to Death; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D016901:Intergenerational Relations; D008297:Male; D008489:Medical Indigency; D008875:Middle Aged; D028681:Moral Obligations; D040841:Resource Allocation; D012935:Social Justice; D012941:Social Responsibility; D012945:Social Values; D028722:Virtues; D035862:Vulnerable Populations; D014933:Women's Rights