Healthcare needs among older persons never seem to cease growing. Biomedical technologies reject natural limitations and transform the very conditions of aging. The conditions of access to healthcare, research and clinical trials warrant consideration to justify the right choices in a context of limited resources. The sometimes excessive medicalization of older person's care may be questioned when the objectives are not clear. Ethical concerns that arise from the inclusion and follow‐up of older subjects in clinical trials are not limited to the sponsors’ and clinical investigators’ compliance to Good Clinical Practice. Therefore, these concerns, which in many respects are unprecedented, should be assessed within the wider framework of the biomedical practice at large and within contexts seeing a selective transition from routine medical care towards exceptional treatment. What criteria should be democratically applied to make admissible decisions? How could medical practices be linked to ethical references adapted to changes whose aims can be barely identified, at least in terms of added medical value? And what responsibilities do scientific innovations involve? How can their impact on our society be regulated?