Article: Solo Aging: On Life and Death

This Chapter explores the legal implications of aging while single. It begins with a description of the growing demographic of single people in the U.S. and then turns to the challenges they face, with attention to intersectionality and comparative law. To explore the similarities as well as differences between aging while single and aging as a married or partnered person, this study defines solo along two dimensions: living arrangement (living alone versus living with others) and legal relationship status (legally single versus legally married or partnered). We will also discuss the legal ramifications of dying alone, including the disposition of assets, handling of the remains and arrangements for burial: the law’s approach to dying alone reflects the privileging of the traditional family rather than the reality of people’s relationships. We underscore the need for legal recognition of chosen families — of expanding legal definitions of family to include those ties that go beyond marriage, consanguinity, and cohabitation –, and the significance of protection against discrimination based on marital status in laws regarding financial security, public accommodations, and health care. We take the position that measures enhancing the autonomy and equality of solo aging people, as proposed in this chapter, will provide a basis for unifying all marginalized groups facing the challenges of aging, so that “when single people enter, we all enter.”