AGE LIMIT DEBATES
SARAH WILD: People expecting to live forever could have dreams dashed
"As in all scientific arguments, not everyone agrees with their numbers, or even the idea that there is an age limit"
A thousand years ago, you would have lived to about 26, before some horrible death befell you. During the Iron Age, that was the average life span of humans and death by some large beast would have been a mercy. Better to go quickly than have a rotten tooth contaminate your blood and poison you from the inside. These days, modern medicine, nutritious foods and penicillin mean we’re living longer. This is often the bane (or blessing, depending on your vantage point) of social and healthcare systems, which are having to adapt to bear the load of an ageing population, but it has reignited the question: is there a physical limit to the human life span? Is there a point at which even the healthiest body gives up? The longevity record holder, Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, lived to 122 years and 164 days.She lived through Thomas Edison’s discovery of the phonograph and the unveiling of the first mobile phone. Calment, who died in 1997, has now held the title of the most long-lived human on r...
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