Comments on: Anti-aging medical research must be our top priority

By: cantloginas_Momo

cantloginas_Momo — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 13:47:00 +0000

With concerns about the ethics of this project being dismissed as “unnecessarily whining“, I think I can rest my case. The argumentation you defend here, and which was at the beginning of the Holocaust, is again at the root of increasing suffering and deaths. I can only conclude that all the project is as unethical as the arguments raised in favour of it. It will definitely be a good thing for humanity, if this project with its doubtful ethics receives no funding.

By: Mushroom overlord

Mushroom overlord — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 09:50:00 +0000

To be perfectly honest with you I think you’re unnecessarily whining and complaining when the issue at hand is clear and one that requires substantial financial support to the projects that aim to eliminate age related disease and the suffering it causes.

By: cantloginas_Momo

cantloginas_Momo — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 16:18:00 +0000

Quite, and I am saying that this perspective is doing nothing to “alleviate the suffering caused by ill-health and death”. A demonisation of “being a burden” is automatically inhumane. It matches an image of humanity that demands that humans be unsolidaric, uncaring, ultimately anti-social. It matches narratives of declaring people who depend on care as suffering from a lack autonomy which suffering has to be cured by assisted suicide saving the costs of a life that other people consider not worth living. It’s the logic of putting a price tag on human life.

I don’t doubt Aubrey’s motives, but his argumentation is dangerously close to an argumention of eugenics.

By: Mushroom overlord

Mushroom overlord — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 11:51:00 +0000

Aubrey is just tackling the issue from an economic perspective. He does state at the outset

“I have always believed that the purpose of medicine is to alleviate the suffering caused by ill-health and death.”

By: cantloginas_Momo

cantloginas_Momo — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 17:50:00 +0000

Is this a satire targeting the inhumanity of our neoliberal age? It is horrifying reading. Humans are seen as one thing only: contributors to wealth creation. If they fail to serve “the economy”, apparently an entity of its own, they become a “burden”. Seriously? Why is the weakness coming with age (or disability or sickness, which the author does not mention) bad? The author gives one single answer: it causes costs. This implies that human beings are subjects of “the economy”, and have duties to “the economy”, but no rights.

By: Dr Johnty

Dr Johnty — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 14:38:00 +0000

This is 100% correct progress in anti aging medicine must be our priority because the cost of caring for elderly people with multiple chronic conditions is a burden on the industrialized worlds health services that is simply not sustainable in the long term. Undoubtably the early treatments to repair the damage caused by aging – as with any other newly developed cutting edge therapies – will be high but the price will drop very rapidly and the more people that are receiving the therapies the more money will be generated / saved. The benefits of these therapies will exceed the expectations of the majority of people because they simply can’t see how it will all pan out but the fact is many old people are frequently extremely unwell with multiple chronic conditions and cannot contribute to society in many of the ways that they would like – nor can they work.

As far as organizations such as Medicare in the US and the NHS in the UK are concerned the treatments to control aging are likely to be much cheaper than the horrific costs currently incurred in treating heart disease, cancer, diabetes, strokes, Alzheimer’s and other incapacitating degenerative illnesses which impair a person’s quality of life. These conditions also create unsustainable burdens on social services. These chronic conditions are something which become a problem in later life and do not usually affect young people. Keep in mind that most people cost the health services more in their final year of life than in all of the rest of their life combined hence there is no possible reason not to develop these interventions at the earliest opportunity.

By: Anti-aging medical research must be our top pri...

Anti-aging medical research must be our top pri... — Wed, 28 Sep 2016 10:54:44 +0000

[…] What is medicine for? Surely an easy question, right? Apparently not. I have always believed that the purpose of medicine is to alleviate the suffering caused by ill-health and death. […]

By: Rejuvenation Research Should be the Highest of Priorities | Technology and Longevity Feed

Fri, 23 Sep 2016 10:33:44 +0000

[…] Link: https://www.opendemocracy.net/neweconomics/anti-aging-medical-research-must-be-our-top-priority/ […]