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García-Barranquero P, Llorca Albareda J, Díaz-Cobacho G. Is ageing undesirable? An ethical analysis. JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ETHICS 2024; 50:413-419. [PMID: 37286333 DOI: 10.1136/jme-2022-108823] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2022] [Accepted: 05/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
The technical possibilities of biomedicine open up the opportunity to intervene in ageing itself with the aim of mitigating, reducing or eliminating it. However, before undertaking these changes or rejecting them outright, it is necessary to ask ourselves if what would be lost by doing so really has much value. This article will analyse the desirability of ageing from an individual point of view, without circumscribing this question to the desirability or undesirability of death. First, we will present the three most widely used arguments to reject biomedical interventions against ageing. We will argue that only the last of these arguments provides a consistent answer to the question of the desirability of ageing. Second, we will show that the third argument falls prey to a conceptual confusion that we will call the paradox of ageing: although ageing entails negative health effects, it leads to a life stage with valuable goods. Both valuations, one positive and the other negative, refer to two different dimensions of ageing: the chronological and the biological. We will defend that, by not adequately distinguishing these two types of ageing, it does not become apparent that all the valuable goods exclusive to ageing derive only from its chronological dimension. Third, we will argue that, if we just conceive ageing biologically, it is undesirable. We will elaborate on the two kinds of undesirable effects biological ageing has: direct and indirect. Finally, we will respond to potential objections by adducing that these are insufficient to weaken our argument.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pablo García-Barranquero
- Department of Philosophy (Logic and Philosophy of Science), Universidad de Malaga, Malaga, Spain
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2
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Rattan SIS. Seven knowledge gaps in modern biogerontology. Biogerontology 2024; 25:1-8. [PMID: 38206540 DOI: 10.1007/s10522-023-10089-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/12/2024]
Abstract
About a year ago, members of the editorial board of Biogerontology were requested to respond to a query by the editor-in-chief of the journal as to what one question within their field of ageing research still needs to be asked and answered. This editorial is inspired by the wide range and variety of questions, ideas, comments and suggestions received in response to that query. The seven knowledge gaps identified in this article are arranged into three main categories: evolutionary aspects of longevity, biological survival and death aspects, and heterogeneity in the progression and phenotype of ageing. This is not an exhaustive and exclusive list, and may be modified and expanded. Implications of these knowledge gaps, especially in the context of ongoing attempts to develop effective interventions in ageing and longevity are also discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Suresh I S Rattan
- Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Aarhus University, 8000, Aarhus C, Denmark.
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Pinel C, Green S, Svendsen MN. Slowing down decay: biological clocks in personalized medicine. FRONTIERS IN SOCIOLOGY 2023; 8:1111071. [PMID: 37139225 PMCID: PMC10149663 DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2023.1111071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
This article discusses so-called biological clocks. These technologies, based on aging biomarkers, trace and measure molecular changes in order to monitor individuals' "true" biological age against their chronological age. Drawing on the concept of decay, and building on ethnographic fieldwork in an academic laboratory and a commercial firm, we analyze the implications of the development and commercialization of biological clocks that can identify when decay is "out of tempo." We show how the building of biological clocks rests on particular forms of knowing decay: In the academic laboratory, researchers focus on endo-processes of decay that are internal to the person, but when the technology moves to the market, the focus shifts as staff bracket decay as exo-processes, which are seen as resulting from a person's lifestyle. As the technology of biological clocks travels from the laboratory to the market of online testing of the consumer's biological age, we observe shifting visions of aging: from an inevitable trajectory of decline to a malleable and plastic one. While decay is an inevitable trajectory starting at birth and ending with death, the commercialization of biological clocks points to ways of stretching time between birth and death as individuals "optimize" their biological age through lifestyle changes. Regardless of admitted uncertainties about what is measured and the connection between maintenance and future health outcomes, the aging person is made responsible for their decaying body and for enacting maintenance to slow down decay. We show how the biological clock's way of "knowing" decay turns aging and its maintenance into a life-long concern and highlight the normative implications of framing decay as malleable and in need of intervention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clémence Pinel
- Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- *Correspondence: Clémence Pinel
| | - Sara Green
- Section for History of Philosophy of Science, Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Mette N. Svendsen
- Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Giglia G, Ognibene D, Bolognini N, De Tommaso M, Cappello F, Sardo P, Ferraro G, Brighina F. Editorial: Timing the Brain: From Basic Sciences to Clinical Implications. Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:880443. [PMID: 35392121 PMCID: PMC8980263 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.880443] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Giuseppe Giglia
- Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
- *Correspondence: Giuseppe Giglia
| | - Dimitri Ognibene
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | - Nadia Bolognini
- Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
| | | | - Francesco Cappello
- Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
| | - Pierangelo Sardo
- Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
- Pierangelo Sardo
| | - Giuseppe Ferraro
- Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
| | - Filippo Brighina
- Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
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Giaimo S. Medawar and Hamilton on the selective forces in the evolution of ageing. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES 2021; 43:124. [PMID: 34822012 PMCID: PMC8616860 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-021-00476-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2021] [Accepted: 10/28/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Both Medawar and Hamilton contributed key ideas to the modern evolutionary theory of ageing. In particular, they both suggested that, in populations with overlapping generations, the force with which selection acts on traits declines with the age at which traits are expressed. This decline would eventually cause ageing to evolve. However, the biological literature diverges on the relationship between Medawar's analysis of the force of selection and Hamilton's. Some authors appear to believe that Hamilton perfected Medawar's insightful, yet ultimately erroneous analysis of this force, while others see Hamilton's analysis as a coherent development of, or the obvious complement to Medawar's. Here, the relationship between the two analyses is revisited. Two things are argued for. First, most of Medawar's alleged errors that Hamilton would had rectified seem not to be there. The origin of these perceived errors appears to be in a misinterpretation of Medawar's writings. Second, the mathematics of Medawar and that of Hamilton show a significant overlap. However, different meanings are attached to the same mathematical expression. Medawar put forth an expression for the selective force on age-specific fitness. Hamilton proposed a full spectrum of selective forces each operating on age-specific fitness components, i.e. mortality and fertility. One of Hamilton's expressions, possibly his most important, is of the same form as Medawar's expression. But Hamilton's selective forces on age-specific fitness components do not add up to yield Medawar's selective force on age-specific fitness. It is concluded that Hamilton's analysis should be considered neither as a correction to Medawar's analysis nor as its obvious complement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Giaimo
- Department of Evolutionary Theory, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August-Thienemann-Straße 2, Plön, 24306, Germany.
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Blasimme A, Boniolo G, Nathan MJ. Rethinking ageing: introduction. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES 2021; 43:95. [PMID: 34357467 PMCID: PMC8343351 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-021-00446-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/01/2021] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Blasimme
- Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology – ETH Zurich, Hottingerstrasse 10, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Giovanni Boniolo
- Dipartimento Di Neuroscienze E Riabilitazione, Università Di Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 64/A, 44121 Ferrara, Italy
| | - Marco J. Nathan
- Department of Philosophy, University of Denver, 264 Sturm Hall, 2000 E. Asbury Ave, Denver, CO 80208 USA
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Sholl J. Can aging research generate a theory of health? HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES 2021; 43:45. [PMID: 33768353 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-021-00402-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 03/12/2021] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
While aging research and policy aim to promote 'health' at all ages, there remains no convincing explanation of what this 'health' is. In this paper, I investigate whether we can find, implicit within the sciences of aging, a way to know what health is and how to measure it, i.e. a theory of health. To answer this, I start from scientific descriptions of aging and its modulators and then try to develop some generalizations about 'health' implicit within this research. After discussing some of the core aspects of aging and the ways in which certain models describe spatial and temporal features specific to both aging and healthy phenotypes, I then extract, explicate, and evaluate one potential construct of health in these models. This suggests a theory of health based on the landscape of optimized phenotypic trajectories. I conclude by considering why it matters for more candidate theories to be proposed and evaluated by philosophers and scientists alike.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonathan Sholl
- University of Bordeaux, CNRS, ImmunoConcEpT, UMR 5164, 33000, Bordeaux, France.
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Wareham CS. Between hoping to die and longing to live longer. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES 2021; 43:40. [PMID: 33754219 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-021-00385-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2020] [Accepted: 02/07/2021] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Drawing on Ezekiel Emanuel's controversial piece 'Why I hope to die at 75,' I distinguish two types of concern in ethical debates about extending the human lifespan. The first focusses on the value of living longer from prudential and social perspectives. The second type of concern, which has received less attention, focusses on the value of aiming for longer life. This distinction, which is overlooked in the ethical literature on life extension, is significant because there are features of human psychology and the structure of a life that should give pause when considering how long one should aim to live, but which do not neatly coincide with considerations about how valuable additional life is likely to be. I argue that, while Emanuel's case for hoping to die at 75 is unconvincing, he nonetheless provides weak pro tanto considerations in favour of taking a moderate life span as a prudential aim around which to base at least some significant life plans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher S Wareham
- Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
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Maung HH. What's my age again? Age categories as interactive kinds. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES 2021; 43:36. [PMID: 33694016 PMCID: PMC7946666 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-021-00388-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 02/10/2021] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
This paper addresses a philosophical problem concerning the ontological status of age classification. For various purposes, people are commonly classified into categories such as "young adulthood", "middle adulthood", and "older adulthood", which are defined chronologically. These age categories prima facie seem to qualify as natural kinds under a homeostatic property cluster account of natural kindhood, insofar as they capture certain biological, psychological, and social properties of people that tend to cluster together due to causal processes. However, this is challenged by the observation that age categories are historically unstable. The properties that age categories are supposed to capture are affected by healthcare and cultural developments, such that people are staying biologically, psychologically, and socially young for longer. Furthermore, the act of classifying people into age categories can bring about changes in their behaviors, which in turn alter the biological, psychological, and social properties that the categories are supposed to capture. Accordingly, I propose that age categories are best understood as interactive kinds that are influenced in dynamic ways by looping effects. I consider some implications of these looping effects for our classificatory practices concerning age, including how different disciplines may need to review the ways they define and use age categories in their inductive inferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hane Htut Maung
- Department of Philosophy, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, Humanities Bridgeford Street, Manchester, M13 9PL, England.
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Green S, Hillersdal L. Aging biomarkers and the measurement of health and risk. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES 2021; 43:1. [PMID: 33620613 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-020-00352-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Prevention of age-related disorders is increasingly in focus of health policies, and it is hoped that early intervention on processes of deterioration can promote healthier and longer lives. New opportunities to slow down the aging process are emerging with new fields such as personalized nutrition. Data-intensive research has the potential to improve the precision of existing risk factors, e.g., to replace coarse-grained markers such as blood cholesterol with more detailed multivariate biomarkers. In this paper, we follow an attempt to develop a new aging biomarker. The vision among the project consortium, comprising both research and industrial partners, is that the new biomarker will be predictive of a range of age-related conditions, which may be preventable through personalized nutrition. We combine philosophical analysis and ethnographic fieldwork to explore the possibilities and challenges of managing aging through bodily signs that are not straightforwardly linked to symptomatic disease. We document how the improvement of measurement brings about new conceptual challenges of demarcating healthy and unhealthy states. Moreover, we highlight that the reframing of aging as risk has social and ethical implications, as it is generative of normative notions of what constitutes successful aging and good citizenship.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Green
- Section for History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Line Hillersdal
- Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Anthropology and Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Green S, Hillersdal L. Aging biomarkers and the measurement of health and risk. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES 2021; 43:28. [PMID: 33620613 PMCID: PMC7901506 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-021-00367-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2020] [Accepted: 01/09/2021] [Indexed: 05/11/2023]
Abstract
Prevention of age-related disorders is increasingly in focus of health policies, and it is hoped that early intervention on processes of deterioration can promote healthier and longer lives. New opportunities to slow down the aging process are emerging with new fields such as personalized nutrition. Data-intensive research has the potential to improve the precision of existing risk factors, e.g., to replace coarse-grained markers such as blood cholesterol with more detailed multivariate biomarkers. In this paper, we follow an attempt to develop a new aging biomarker. The vision among the project consortium, comprising both research and industrial partners, is that the new biomarker will be predictive of a range of age-related conditions, which may be preventable through personalized nutrition. We combine philosophical analysis and ethnographic fieldwork to explore the possibilities and challenges of managing aging through bodily signs that are not straightforwardly linked to symptomatic disease. We document how the improvement of measurement brings about new conceptual challenges of demarcating healthy and unhealthy states. Moreover, we highlight that the reframing of aging as risk has social and ethical implications, as it is generative of normative notions of what constitutes successful aging and good citizenship.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Green
- Section for History and Philosophy of Science, Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Line Hillersdal
- Centre for Medical Science and Technology Studies, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Anthropology and Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
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Jecker NS. The time of one's life: views of aging and age group justice. HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE LIFE SCIENCES 2021; 43:24. [PMID: 33587208 DOI: 10.1007/s40656-021-00377-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2020] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
This paper argues that we can see our lives as a snapshot happening now or as a moving picture extending across time. These dual ways of seeing our lives inform how we conceive of the problem of age group justice. A snapshot view sees age group justice as an interpersonal problem between distinct age groups. A moving picture view sees age group justice as a first-person problem of prudential choice. This paper explores these different ways of thinking about age group justice and illustrates them using a principle of respect for human dignity, understood in terms of reasonable support for floor level central human capabilities at each stage of life. I argue that different frames are suitable for different kinds of decisions, and each provides a true, but partial, picture of aging and age group justice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nancy S Jecker
- Department of Bioethics and Humanities, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Box 357120, Seattle, WA, 98195-7120, USA.
- Department of Philosophy and African Centre for Philosophy of Science & Epistemology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa.
- Center for Bioethics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong.
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