Geriatric Medicine or Geriatric Medicalization?

Medical considerations about aging are as old as medicine itself. However, due to the controversy about whether aging should be classified as a disease or merely a stage of life, geriatric medicine was separated from medicine with a considerable lag. The differentiation of geriatrics from other medical specialties is not rooted in subjecting a specific organ of the body or specific pathophysiological processes but based on a particular stage of life. On the other hand, different stages of life, such as old age, are also subjects for medicalization. Therefore, geriatric medicine may sometimes be threatened by geriatric medicalization and its associated harms. In addition, the relativity and ambiguity in defining the concept of aging and its dependence on social contexts can lead to confusion in understanding the subject matter of geriatric medicine. Mitigating these harms requires philosophical and ethical reflection on health and disease concepts as well as on the essence of aging. Considering that Iran is expected to face an aging crisis in the coming decades, this philosophical reflection at different levels among researchers in the philosophy of medicine and medical ethics, researchers and practitioners in geriatrics, as well as among civil society, can lead to separating geriatric medicine from geriatric medicalization, hence increasing the integrity and efficiency of geriatric medicine, and promoting the health status of the elderly.