Well-being in the Elderly: the Opportunity and Freedom to Achieve Valuable Functioning

This paper aims to analyze well-being in the elderly. Taking into account the peculiar vulnerabilities and difficulties of old age, an attempt is made to identify the most appropriate normative specification for developing ethics and public policies to provide at least sufficient levels of quality of life for the entire elderly population. Highlighting some of the limitations of the subjective and objective theories of wellbeing found in the contemporary literature, the framework offered by Sen’s capabilities approach will be endorsed, considering it capable of correlating the role played by different capabilities under different health conditions and at different stages of the aging process.