Has the time come to take on time itself?

doi:10.1136/bmj.a414

Published 8 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a414
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a414

Analysis

Has the time come to take on time itself?

Colin Farrelly, associate professor

¹ Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada N2L 3G1

farrelly@uwaterloo.ca

Analysis, doi: 10.1136/bmj.a399

Staying healthier for longer has benefits for society as wellas individuals. Colin Farrelly examines the efforts of scienceto delay ageing

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Has the time come to get more serious about the effort to slowhuman ageing? The advocates of the longevity dividend believeit has.¹ On 12 September 2006 the not-for-profit citizen advocacyorganisation Alliance for Aging Research held a Capitol Hillsymposium entitled "Going for the longevity dividend: scientificgoals for the world’s aging populations." This campaigncalls on Congress to invest $3bn (£1.5bn; ${euro}$ 2bn) annuallyinto understanding the biology of ageing. That would amountto about 1% of the current Medicare budget.

In an era where media headlines are dominated by the war onterror and global warming, and much of the world’s populationlive in conditions of poverty and disease, it might seem insensitiveand unfair to suggest that we should divert more scarce publicfunding into tackling ageing. But such a knee jerk reactioncan be overcome once you consider the science and ethics behindthe proposal.

. . . [Full text of this article]

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