Life Extension

My selfish genes have managed an immortality of sorts by getting themselves into four delightful children ... For at least a day or two, I wonder if I might be able to achieve immortality by writing great literature ... I read Woody Allen, who said, "I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." ... I head to the local bookstore looking for Milan Kundera's novel Immortality ... The store doesn't carry Kundera, but it does have a new book called Immortality: How Science Is Extending Your Life Span—and Changing the World.

I interviewed a guy who was supposed to be one of the foremost geriatric scientists in the world. At the end of our conversation, I asked him if science knew anything that would prolong life. "Eat less," he said, and then explained about tests with rats. Those whose caloric intake was reduced 30 percent lived longer and were healthier than the others. That's true, no doubt. Reducing caloric intake isn't the whole story of healthy eating, but it's an important part as far as keeping the flab off.

Everyone speaks as if the resources that are required to sustain life beyond its natural term belong to all of us to spend how we as a society have decided. Think of the debate over Terry Schiavo ... Not once ... was the issue of who was paying brought up ... There is no getting around the fact that the institution that is the source of funding will ultimately make the decisions on how resources are used. The more that programs like Medicare and Medicaid pay for life extension, the more the government will be in a position to decide when a person's life must be sustained and when it must end.

Try to imagine, for just a minute, how much we could improve the health of Americans if we embraced the ideals that I have outlined here: self-responsibility, competition, deregulation, and tax incentives. Let markets truly work in health care and I have little doubt that the health of Americans would improve immensely. I predict that we would see an increase in longevity to nearly 100 years within just a few decades—true freedom and innovation. Are good health and increased longevity worthy ideals for our movement to embrace? I think they are!