OXFORD (Reuters) - Modern medicine is redefining old age and may soon allow people to live regularly beyond the current upper limit of 120 years, experts said onWednesday.
It used to be thought there was some in built limit on lifespan, but a group of scientists meeting at Oxford University for a conference on life extension and enhancement dismissed that idea. Paul Hodge, director of the Harvard Generations PolicyProgram, said governments around the world -struggling with pension crises, graying workforces andrising healthcare costs - had to face up to the challenge now.
"Life expectancy is going to grow significantly, and current policies are going to be proven totally inadequate," he predicted. Just how far and fast life expectancy will increase is open to debate, but the direction and the accelerating trend is clear.
Richard Miller of the Michigan University Medical School said tests on mice and rats - genetically very similar to humans - showed lifespan could be extended by 40 percent, simply by limiting calorie consumption. Translated into humans, that would mean average life expectancy in rich countries rising from near 80 to 112 years, with many individuals living a lot longer.
Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist from Cambridge University, goes much further. He believes the first person to live to 1,000 has already been born and told the meeting that periodic repairs to the body using stem cells, gene therapy and other techniques could eventually stop the aging process entirely. De Grey argues that if each repair lasts 30 or 40 years, science will advance enough by the next "service" date that death can be put off indefinitely- a process he calls strategies for engineered negligible senescence. His maverick ideas are dismissed by others in the field, such as Tom Kirkwood, director of Newcastle University's Center of Aging and Nutrition, as little more than a thought experiment.
Kirkwood said the human aging process was intrinsically malleable - meaning life expectancy was not set in stone - but researchers had only scratched the surface in understanding how it worked.
CALL FOR FUNDING
The real goal is not simply longer life but longer healthy life, something that is starting to happen as today's over-70s lead far more active lives than previous generations. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois in Chicago is confident that longevity and health will go hand in hand and that delaying aging will translate into later onset for diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's and heart disease. But to get to the bottom of understanding the biology of aging will require a major step-up in investment.
Olshansky and his colleagues have called on the U.S. government to inject $3 billion a year into the field, arguing the benefits of achieving an average seven-year delay in the process of biological aging would far exceed the gains from eliminating cancer.
Ethically, the extension of life is controversial, with some philosophers arguing it goes against fundamental human nature. But John Harris, Professor of Bioethics at the University of Manchester, said any society that applauded the saving of life had a duty to embrace regenerative medicine. "Life saving is just death postponing with a positive spin," he said. "If it is right and good to postpone death for a short time, it is hard to see now it would be less right and less good to postpone it for a longwhile."
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Problem of being a "Step" parents
WICKED stepmothers, lecherous stepfathers and selfish stepsiblings. From fairy tales to movies and real-life criminal cases, step families are often associated with turmoil and pain.
This perception was reinforced when toddler Nonoi was found dead and her stepfather was charged with her murder. But, as we all know, not all stepfathers are like that. There are many loving step-parents who care for their stepchildren as if they were their own. But because of the complex nature of stepfamilies, some need help in making their home happy.
With the number of remarriages in Singapore shooting up, the Asian Women's Welfare Association (Awwa)designed a programme four years ago to counsel stepfamilies. According to figures obtained from the Singapore Department of Statistics, remarriages between 1983 and2003 for men have more than doubled and almost quadrupled for women.
In its booklet for stepfamilies published last August, Awwa said the challenges they face are many, especially in disciplining the spouse's children from a previous marriage, money matters and agreeing on what a marriage should be.
As it's still something of a taboo topic, stepfamilies we spoke to did not want their reals names used. Madam Rita, 42, got along well with her stepchildren, aged 11 and 7, at first. But they became rebellious when she married their father. The kids live with them. Said Madam Rita, who works in data entry: "I don'twant the myth of what a stepmother is to come true -abusive and wicked.
"DAD DISCIPLINES And so she leaves it to her husband, a security guard, to discipline them. The couple also have an 18-month-old girl. Madam Rita said one issue that is always a source of quarrels with her husband is the disciplining of his children. She wants them to study hard. But she said her husband takes a more relaxed approach and does not force them to study. She spends time giving them tuition in English and maths, and hopes this will help improve their relationship.
The two children are still close to their biological mother, who, Madam Rita said, bad-mouths her.
"They think mum is always right," she said. "It's painful because I try so hard to be a good stepmother.
"She said the family is now seeking help from the As-Salaam PPIS Family Support Centre, which runs are marriages and stepfamilies programme targeting Malay-Muslims.
Since the programme was introduced, 100 couples have gone for it. Madam Anna, 26, earns $500 a month and married her current husband more than a year ago. This is her second marriage and she has known him for seven years. Madam Anna said she divorced her first husband three years ago after having four children with him - two boys and two girls, aged 5 to 10. Her current husband, Adam, 29, works with her. He too earns $500 a month and does odd jobs for extra cash. He said Madam Anna's ex-husband initially had custodyof their 7-year-old daughter, Rosnah, and had wantedto leave her in a children's home. But after discussing the matter with his wife, Mr Adam decided to take the girl in. Madam Anna was eventually given custody of Rosnah. She said her husband gets along with his stepkids. "There haven't been many problems (adjusting to him). He treats them like his own children. But more importantly, they see the difference between their stepfather and their real father. "She claims her ex-husband was violent and used to hit their children. But it isn't all rosy at home now. Madam Anna said Rosnah has disciplinary problems, often refusing to listen to their instructions. Said Madam Anna: "She has the most problems adjusting. She will listen to him (Adam) one moment, then go back to her naughty ways the next.
"Mr Adam added that being a stepfather is not easy at first. He said: "When I got married, it took me some time to adjust to everything. For the first six months, it did strike me that I'm not their real father and that did bother me a bit. "But he said it became easier over time. Also he knew his wife and her children earlier, and he had the opportunity to get close to the kids. He said his four stepchildren have accepted him as his father.He said: "It is hard. But my stepchildren are like my children now."
This perception was reinforced when toddler Nonoi was found dead and her stepfather was charged with her murder. But, as we all know, not all stepfathers are like that. There are many loving step-parents who care for their stepchildren as if they were their own. But because of the complex nature of stepfamilies, some need help in making their home happy.
With the number of remarriages in Singapore shooting up, the Asian Women's Welfare Association (Awwa)designed a programme four years ago to counsel stepfamilies. According to figures obtained from the Singapore Department of Statistics, remarriages between 1983 and2003 for men have more than doubled and almost quadrupled for women.
In its booklet for stepfamilies published last August, Awwa said the challenges they face are many, especially in disciplining the spouse's children from a previous marriage, money matters and agreeing on what a marriage should be.
As it's still something of a taboo topic, stepfamilies we spoke to did not want their reals names used. Madam Rita, 42, got along well with her stepchildren, aged 11 and 7, at first. But they became rebellious when she married their father. The kids live with them. Said Madam Rita, who works in data entry: "I don'twant the myth of what a stepmother is to come true -abusive and wicked.
"DAD DISCIPLINES And so she leaves it to her husband, a security guard, to discipline them. The couple also have an 18-month-old girl. Madam Rita said one issue that is always a source of quarrels with her husband is the disciplining of his children. She wants them to study hard. But she said her husband takes a more relaxed approach and does not force them to study. She spends time giving them tuition in English and maths, and hopes this will help improve their relationship.
The two children are still close to their biological mother, who, Madam Rita said, bad-mouths her.
"They think mum is always right," she said. "It's painful because I try so hard to be a good stepmother.
"She said the family is now seeking help from the As-Salaam PPIS Family Support Centre, which runs are marriages and stepfamilies programme targeting Malay-Muslims.
Since the programme was introduced, 100 couples have gone for it. Madam Anna, 26, earns $500 a month and married her current husband more than a year ago. This is her second marriage and she has known him for seven years. Madam Anna said she divorced her first husband three years ago after having four children with him - two boys and two girls, aged 5 to 10. Her current husband, Adam, 29, works with her. He too earns $500 a month and does odd jobs for extra cash. He said Madam Anna's ex-husband initially had custodyof their 7-year-old daughter, Rosnah, and had wantedto leave her in a children's home. But after discussing the matter with his wife, Mr Adam decided to take the girl in. Madam Anna was eventually given custody of Rosnah. She said her husband gets along with his stepkids. "There haven't been many problems (adjusting to him). He treats them like his own children. But more importantly, they see the difference between their stepfather and their real father. "She claims her ex-husband was violent and used to hit their children. But it isn't all rosy at home now. Madam Anna said Rosnah has disciplinary problems, often refusing to listen to their instructions. Said Madam Anna: "She has the most problems adjusting. She will listen to him (Adam) one moment, then go back to her naughty ways the next.
"Mr Adam added that being a stepfather is not easy at first. He said: "When I got married, it took me some time to adjust to everything. For the first six months, it did strike me that I'm not their real father and that did bother me a bit. "But he said it became easier over time. Also he knew his wife and her children earlier, and he had the opportunity to get close to the kids. He said his four stepchildren have accepted him as his father.He said: "It is hard. But my stepchildren are like my children now."
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