Longer Lives a Reality
The Sydney Morning Herald on aging, life span and healthy life extension: "We have people living now who are older than we've ever had. The question is whether we've done anything about the ageing process or we're treating diseases more effectively. People in their 70s are healthier than they were 50 years ago but, on the other hand, I don't see, unless we do something about ageing, that, 20 years from now, a 70- or an 80-year-old person will be any healthier than they are now. ... quality of life will not improve dramatically until scientists look further at the mechanisms behind, rather than the symptoms of, ageing. ... Until the past five years, there was not a lot of interest in putting money into ageing research - one reason was the belief that you couldn't do anything about it." It is clearly the case that we can do something about it - we should move ahead as rapidly as possible to alleviate the outrage that is age-related suffering and death.