You Can Live For Another 20 Years!
In the news it appears scientists believe they have found a gene which if it can be switched on would allow people another 20 years of life.
Would we want to?
I suspect it depends if you have lots of friends and family around you but more importantly whether you have and will continue to have good health. Would another twenty years of possible suffering with chronic conditions be what you want? Or is all life precious and sacred?
Then again, if you live another twenty years, I suspect the Government would be looking at ways to avoid having you have a long retirement(they hate paying out all the state pension that they have to)so they could very well put back the age you retire again.
Another problem is I understand this extra twenty years would probably switched on with a pill. How long do you have to take it? When do you start? Assuming none of us know how long we will live in the first place and all the variables that can affect the outcome how will you know the extra twenty years were added to your original total?
One aspect that is a bit difficult is many of us would say we wish not to mess about with nature and yet scientific research has already allowed many of us to survive and live longer than we would've and thinking of Mum, there I am trying to do all I can to make her comfortable, well and in reality live as long as possible which kind of contradicts the original question I pose. Also some reasons for having a shorter life can be self inflicted so how would that be affected?
Mum has always eaten well, rarely drank alcohol and never smoked(and still has become seriously ill)My Father's early death(I assume)came about because he was a smoker.
I'm sure that there are many more concerns and questions to be asked of this announcement that even I have yet to think up.
Would we want to?
I suspect it depends if you have lots of friends and family around you but more importantly whether you have and will continue to have good health. Would another twenty years of possible suffering with chronic conditions be what you want? Or is all life precious and sacred?
Then again, if you live another twenty years, I suspect the Government would be looking at ways to avoid having you have a long retirement(they hate paying out all the state pension that they have to)so they could very well put back the age you retire again.
Another problem is I understand this extra twenty years would probably switched on with a pill. How long do you have to take it? When do you start? Assuming none of us know how long we will live in the first place and all the variables that can affect the outcome how will you know the extra twenty years were added to your original total?
One aspect that is a bit difficult is many of us would say we wish not to mess about with nature and yet scientific research has already allowed many of us to survive and live longer than we would've and thinking of Mum, there I am trying to do all I can to make her comfortable, well and in reality live as long as possible which kind of contradicts the original question I pose. Also some reasons for having a shorter life can be self inflicted so how would that be affected?
Mum has always eaten well, rarely drank alcohol and never smoked(and still has become seriously ill)My Father's early death(I assume)came about because he was a smoker.
I'm sure that there are many more concerns and questions to be asked of this announcement that even I have yet to think up.
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 5:50 am
6 Comments:
...and always the possibility that you take the pill and get hit by a bus on the way home from the Doctor's!
We are already living longer: better care, better disease control, better diets etc. Right up to the 1950/60s most infant deaths were from pneumonia, now almost none are.
Trouble is humankind will always fiddle and in the end we will bring about our own downfall.
I think its just a big cop out that the government and insurance companies keep telling us that
'people are living longer'.
My great grandmother lived into her nineties yet her daughter my granny only lived into her eighties.
Looking at the census for 1901 my grandad's grandmother was eighty eight yet my grandad only lived into his forties.
'people are living longer'
An excuse to cover up for Gordon Brown and the bankers for putting their snouts in the trough and robbing and ruining one of the best pension schemes in the world.
My husband died more than twenty years ago, before his time.
Then, I would have given anything for him to have been given another twenty years.
He would have been 77 now and I know that he would have absolutely hated being old and, possibly, not very mobile.
Perhaps there really is someone, somewhere who knows better than we do.
I can see so much truth and common sense in all the views passed so far.
I don't believe the Human Race will survive forever either Span. If there is not a natural disaster, we'll do something to cause some major problem.
Many of the best discoveries regarding our longevity and health come about...naturally.
You change something here, something will change there...
VQ, I feel for you and appreciate what you are saying. My Father went too soon but you do wonder what life would've been like 10-20 years on, all for the reasons you say.
You hope for good health and enough money to have to have time together and do things that perhaps bringing up a family and working has not allowed.
And some are lucky of course.
But when things fall apart and I hate to say it(and this ties in with anon's comment)many do not live to a great age or in good health, now sadly there is question about the care we are receiving and politically we have the problems over help being withdrawn.
I hate to hear of anyone suffering(Brown and Cameron)have had problems with losing children and the pain that brings but though money will not necessarily cure you, they are well off(many in the Government at present are millionaires)so they can at least attempt to get the best care.
And none of them are going to be doing the really hard jobs like sweeping the streets, building roads and houses, making steel etc...the kind that probably make people ill later in life.
We seem to be going in the opposite direction. If I sit down and really think about where we are I could get very scared.
Hate to split hairs, but from what you've said in the past your Mum has lived a long & healthy life until about 3 years ago . She's not become seriously ill, she's just become elderly.Which happens to all of us !
It's not desisting from drinking & smoking that's made her frail, it's just ano domini !
Yes, that is true.
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