Post
Topic
Board Politics & Society
Re: Woman Deemed World's Oldest Person Dies at 116 in Michigan
by
Possum577
on 19/06/2015, 16:55:47 UTC
Yes but will the medical community be able to improve the quality of life at that age? Living that long would be great! Spending 30+ years as very elderly with limited mobility or freedom would be a challenge. (Not awful, just a challenge).

The medical community has improved the quality of life already. In 1900, the average life expectancy in the third world nations stood at just 22 years (for the United States it was 44 years). It has increased by more than 3 times now. And earlier, people used to retire at 45 or 50. Now, I am seeing people working at even 80 years of age.

I'm not sure that length of life always correlates to quality of life. I also don't think that comparing today with 115 years ago is fair either.