Academic

THOUGHTS ON EXTENDING LIFE: The chief causes of natural death among the elderly form a concise se?

By Glenn Reynolds

THOUGHTS ON EXTENDING LIFE:

The chief causes of natural death among the elderly form a concise set: Heart disease and cancer are the big killers, with strokes, Alzheimer?s, diabetes, or opportunistic infections claiming most of the rest. Until recently, we?ve focused on attacking each of these diseases separately, but we?ve made little progress; despite developed countries? collectively spending untold billions of dollars pursuing this elusive goal, eventually something from the same old rogue?s gallery seems to arrive for everyone.

This could all soon change, thanks to a recent, astonishing discovery of genetic pathways that defend against aging. This has opened up, for the first time, the possibility that we can develop medicines that will not only help us live longer but also reach the ends of our lives more gracefully, free from the pernicious diseases that would otherwise plague us. In other words, with the help of drugs already in human trials, there is now a chance that you will be able to dance at your great-granddaughter?s wedding just as you did at your own. . . . During the Victorian era, children commonly died of illnesses like measles, mumps, and whooping cough; surely, no one would suggest today that we eliminate prenatal care, vaccines, or water purification in order to return to a more ?natural? state. Now that we have the technology to eliminate the scourge of infant mortality, it would be immoral to not use it. In truth, we?re fighting aging and extending lifespan every time a doctor prescribes a statin drug or recommends a healthier diet to a patient. And the fact remains that science has not yet discovered an indisputable biological ?expiration date? for a human life, nor is there good evidence that one exists.

In time, the idea of an inevitable, debilitating decline starting at age 50 will seem as horrifying and primitive as it does for us, in the age of potent antibiotic cocktails, to imagine a young person in the 19th century dying from an infection caused by a splinter.

Read the whole thing. Er, and faster, please . . . .

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on April 22, 2009 (boomark / email).