The terrifying price of too-long life

If you like waking up to war, famine, pestilence and people shouting at each other you like Radio 4. Oddly, I do.

This morning I emerged from a day-denying doze to hear medical people warning of the cancerous perils of alcohol, even small amounts of it. You too perhaps. Chilling stuff. The advice seems to be to knock it on the head altogether, though if you’ve ever drunk, stopping only partially reduces your chances of avoiding, in Betjeman’s words, ‘A losing fight with frightful pain / Or a gasping fight for breath.’ The tones of the medics’ voices seemed to be high in gloat-factor. Read the Indy report of this latest health scare here.

As both a resolute drinker and a tenacious smoker I should have been especially terrified but I wasn’t at all and lit up instead. I don’t kid myself, as these doctors seem to do, that the healthy alternative to life-enhancing recreational drugs is immortality. On the contrary, I wanted to reach out to them and warn them that if they eke themselves out rather than use themselves up they’re in for the most terrifying fate of all. The price of longevity can be the cruellest death of all.

In response to the terrifying longevity epidemic that is now beginning to overwhelm ‘advanced’ societies, an excellent website, SOARS, has established itself in Brighton. It promotes rational suicide for the over 85s. It’s well worth an hour or so of your time. Here, to whet your appetite, are some extracts:

In 1900, the average life expectancy at birth for the world as a whole was only around 30 years, and in the Western world just under 50. The figures now, according to an Economist report last year, are 67 and 78 respectively, and still rising.

SOARS is mainly concerned about those who are 85 and older. Today, in the UK, there are 1.3 million individuals in this age group: by 2020, it is believed there will be at least two million: and, by 2035, it is  estimated that there will be 3.2 million, accounting for five per cent of the population.

A Newcastle University “85 plus” study, published last December, stated that nine in ten of these elderly people would be expected to have at least three health problems, such as heart disease, osteoarthritis and impaired vision, which would require treatment. Ageing populations put increasing burdens on a nation’s health and social services. In an ideal world, the rising financial costs involved should not be an issue, but, unfortunately, this world is very far from ideal.

“In my 30 years as an Emergency Room physician, I have watched many people die. I’ve learned from them that the modern American death is often a chronic illness, spanning some five to 10 years, in which a person slowly looses their mobility, their independence, their ability to perform basic activities of daily living, their intellect, and all ability to enjoy life. At some point in this decline, many of us would choose to say, ‘enough suffering, just let me die” – Dr. Jeanne Fitzpatrick, writing in The Huffington Post, February 9, 2010.

SOARS website here.