How can we live forever?

BMJ 1996;313:1571 (21 December)

Editorials

How can we live forever?

Choose your parents, and try not to accumulate mutant mitochondria

Of course living forever is a myth--sooner or later an accidentwould catch up with us even if we did not age. But there hasbeen considerable discussion recently of the idea that the humanlife span might be extended.¹ Much of this discussion can bedismissed as wild optimism, but there are some geneticists whoseem willing to extrapolate from work on invertebrates to suggestthat 200 year human life spans may be on the horizon.² To understandthe status of these claims we need to look at current knowledgeof the biology of aging and, in particular, the role of genetics.It has long been held that the best recipe for a long life isto choose your parents well, and a study on longevity recordsin a sample of 19th century Danish twins has estimated thatgenetic . . . [Full text of this article]