and of course the system is made to order for the unfilial child who wants Mummy or Daddy to die without being a nuisance:  survival rates in "elder care" facilities are not that great, even when we rule out egregious incompetence, malpractise, or cruelty.

study after study shows that elders live longer with better preservation of their faculties and higher quality of life when they are not segregated into old-folks ghettos but live in a village-like setting with a close community of mixed ages, doing some grandparently social time with kids, interacting with a range of adults, etc.

this careful segregation, the Taylorisation of housing and care, contributes to disability and depression in the aged, which of course feeds the myth that elders need to be segregated, etc.  I could go on at almost indefinite length but will restrain myself...

The difference between theory and practise in practise ...