Et si les vieux nous disaient comment bien vieillir ?

The Clinical Ethics Center of the AP-HP offers the opportunity to observe the ethical issues arising in the field, from the points of view of patients, relatives, and healthcare professionals. Old age is often an opportunity questions to be raised. After several years of work in the field of geriatrics, in particular through qualitative research studies, what can be said about the extent of medicalization of old age, the respect for the autonomy of the elderly and the management of dependence by society? This article aims to show that the recurrent ethical questioning about a certain “inadequate medicalization” among the elderly, about the difficulties apprehending and respecting the wishes of old people and about institutionalization, which is most often not desired, should incite society not to leave medicine on its own to deal with the ethical issues raised by old age.