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14 Stan. L. & Pol'y Rev. 175 (2003)
Second Childhood: What Child Protection System Can Teach Elder Protection Systems

handle is hein.journals/stanlp14 and id is 175 raw text is: Second Childhood: What Child Protection Systems Can Teach Elder Protection Systems Nina A. Kohn* I. INTRODUCTION Eighty-eight-year-old Ms. Wallien was left lying in her own urine and feces by nursing home staff so often that the tissue on her ankles, feet, and buttocks decomposed, exposing bone.' Partially paralyzed and sickly, sixty-eight-year-old Mr. Heitzman died after his son decided to withhold all food and drink from him for three days so that Mr. Heitzman could not defecate or urinate; the son was having a dinner party and did not want their shared residence to smell.2 Eighty-seven-year-old Ms. Gay died after being bitten by ants more than 1600 times over the course of two days as she lay bedridden in her Florida nursing home.3 Sixty- nine-year-old Ms. Balestra spent two hours imprisoned in her own house, as her daughter beat her, threatened to kill her, and destroyed her belongings.4 Ms. Wallien's, Mr. Heitzman's, Ms. Gay's, and Ms. Balestra's stories may be unique in their details, but over a million of America's elderly suffer from abuse and neglect each year.5 In a country thai: promises that no criminal shall be subject to cruel and unusual punishment, elders face the very real possibility of literally being tortured to death. Instead of enjoying their golden years, elders may instead find themselves deprived of their most fundamental civil rights and stripped of their most basic dignities. If the basic civil rights of elder Americans are to be protected, America must become better equipped to deal with elder abuse and neglect. There is little time to spare. Not only are lives at stake now, but there will also soon be many more persons at risk. The population is aging rapidly, and the baby boom generation will begin to reach senior status within a decade. 6 As the population ages, the number of incidents of elder abuse * Nina A. Kohn is a 1999 summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University and a 2002 magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. She is currently a law clerk to the Honorable Fred Parker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The author is indebted to her advisor, Professor Elizabeth Bartholet of Harvard Law School, for her insight as well as her enthusiasm for and support of this project. The author is also grateful to the following people for their assistance: Marie-Therese Connolly, Coordinator, Nursing Home Initiative, U.S. Department of Justice; Verlin Deerinwater, Senior Attorney, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Kathy Fitzgerald, Staff Attorney, Elder Unit, Greater Boston Legal Services; Ellen Herman, Associate Professor, University of Oregon; Ralph Ranald, Professor, City University of New York; Lori Steigel, Associate Staff Director, American Bar Association Commission on Legal Problems of the Elderly; and the late Rosalie Wolf, Director, Institute on Aging, University of Massachusetts Health Care in Worcester. 1 Delaney v. Baker, 971 P.2d 986 (Cal. 1999). 2 People v. Heitzman, 886 P.2d 1229 (Cal. 1994). 3 Vickie Chachere, New Clients Barred at Nursing Home After Fatal Ant Bites, FLA. SUN-SENTINEL, June 6,2000, at 6B; Nursing Home Faces Fines in Ant Attack, State Officials Request Daily $3,050 Penalty, FLA. TIMES-UNION, June 13, 2000, al: B3. 4 People v. Balestra, 90 Cal. Rptr. 2d 77 (Ct. App. 1999). Estimates vary as is discussed infra text accompanying notes 12-25. 6 The percentage of Americans sixty-five and over has more than tripled since 1900. As of 2000, thirty-five million Americans, or 12.4% of the population, were sixty-five years of age or older. The elderly population is projected to grow dramatically within the next thirty years, particularly between the years 2010 and 2030 when the baby boom generation will reach age sixty-five. By VOLUME 14.1 2003 175

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