05
Apr
2006
Aging Apologism, Alive and Well
Permalink | View Comments (0) | Post Comment | Posted by Reason

You'd think that in a world in which people want to live longer, healthier lives - and a world on the verge of working healthy life extension technologies - there wouldn't be much of a market for apologism for aging, disease and death. Sadly, you'd be wrong; here's a dose of the "lie down and die" school of thought from MSNBC: "What we need to do is to recognize that we can't necessarily prevent some degree of disability or frailty in old age. But we can try to make sure that old age is as good a time - despite disabilities - as it can be." Acceptance made sense when there was no plausible way forward to deal with the underlying biochemical damage that causes age-related degeneration - but that isn't the case anymore. Apologists, no matter how well intentioned, are only hurting public support for serious, plausible efforts to extend healthy life span and repair age-related damage.

Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12110013/site/newsweek/

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