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Social, Political, and Ethical Obstacles to Human Life Extension

The International Association of Biomedical Gerontology, 10 th Congress. Social, Political, and Ethical Obstacles to Human Life Extension. Steven N. Austad University of Idaho USA. Longisin. Longisin. Longisin. Lo. Longisin. Longisin. Longisin. Economic Realities of Aging Research.

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Social, Political, and Ethical Obstacles to Human Life Extension

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  1. The International Association of Biomedical Gerontology, 10th Congress Social, Political, and Ethical Obstacles to Human Life Extension Steven N. Austad University of Idaho USA

  2. Longisin Longisin Longisin Lo Longisin Longisin Longisin

  3. Economic Realities of Aging Research • FY 2004 NIH Budget: • 10.3% Heart, Lung, Blood • 17.1% Cancer • 15.6% Infectious Diseases • 3.6%Aging

  4. Why?? (1) People are seriously ambivalent about medically extending life

  5. Why The Ambivalence? • The Fairness Argument • The Malthusian Argument (Resource shortages)

  6. Life Expectancy at Age 65

  7. Projected Federal Budget Outlays for Medicare & Socal Security

  8. Who Will Pay for Retirement Benefits?

  9. Retirement Age Has Been Moving in the Wrong Direction

  10. On the Other Hand… • We Don’t: • Encourage smoking • Renounce antibiotics and vaccines • Destroy insulin supplies • Reward reckless driving • Refuse to treat heart attack victims

  11. A Tactic/Scientific Mistake: Our Focus has Been on Length of Life

  12. Aging = Functional Loss Over Time Age 17 Age 52

  13. Aging = Functional Loss Over Time Retarding Senescence Percent Function Remaining Age Age (after Nathan Shock)

  14. Aging = • Gradual and progressive loss of function over time, leading to: • Increasing incidence of death and disease • Decreased health and well-being*

  15. Mission Statement:US National Institutes of Health [Our]… mission is science in pursuit of fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to extend healthy life and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.

  16. Mission Statement:UK Medical Research Council To encourage and support high-quality research with the aim of maintaining and improving human health

  17. What is Health? “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Preamble to the Constitution of WHO, 1946

  18. What is Health II? Possessing the physical capability to do the activities in life that one wishes to do.

  19. Improving Health (by Delaying Aging) Will Affect ManyChronic Conditions(Sources: National Center for Health Statistics)

  20. CR Km run per day AL Age Ready…Set…

  21. Why?? People are seriously ambivalent about medically extending life; Aging has no built-in constituency of energized, grieving survivors

  22. Why?? People are seriously ambivalent about medically extending life; Aging has no built-in constituency of devoted, grieving survivors The naturalistic fallacy is common

  23. The Way It Was(sources Lovejoy, et al.1977; Neel & Weiss, 1975; Gage, 1988)

  24. Social Expectations Were Based on Short Expectations of Life • Richard II at 14 years old pacified Wat Tyler’s troops with a speech. • At 14, Alexander Hamilton set numerous rules for sea captains who traded with his employer’s firm. • Alexander the Great, a teenager at the time, led armies in battle. • A warrior’s young page might be made a knight at 12. From Barzun, Dawn to Decadence* (2000), * Published when Barzun was 93

  25. Good Riddance to the Way It Was(source for recent data: USDHHS:SSA)

  26. Rationale for the Effort to Slow Human Aging • Goal is improvement and preservation of health, not (necessarily) the prevention of death • That goal is consistent with all disease-based biomedical research efforts • Continuing to increase longevity by disease-based advances alone could be a major catastrophe • 25 - 50% of people over 85 have disabling dementia • Slowing aging is a much more effective approach to preserving health than treating individual diseases

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