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Notes that, in contemporary Western society, people feel death of small child is greater injustice than death of older adult and experience correspondingly greater sorrow, anger, regret, or bitterness when very young person dies. Contrasts these attitudes with those of ancient Greece and shows relevance that different attitudes toward death have for health care decision making. (Author/NB)

Shows how present emphasis on patient autonomy overlooks ways in which intimate relations enable autonomy to function meaningfully and how traditional categories of competent and incompetent discount intimacy as tool for accessing patients' subjective experiences. Urges intimate associations to mark moral boundaries for autonomy because they constitute setting in which persons give and expend finite human resources. (Author)

Discusses the ethical considerations of the differential responses among people over the death of younger and an older persons. Relatively greater sorrow over the death of younger persons; Comparison of the contemporary attitudes with those of the ancient Greece; Implications of the attitudes on the timing of eath on health care decisions.