Ethics for the Fountain of YouthDavid J. HepworthBrigham Young UniversityEthics for the Fountain of Youth Within one hundred years, unless we make major advances in research, you will die. Before then, you will see many of the friends and family you love go through the process of decay, illness, and death. By repeatedly witnessing this process, we have accepted it as natural, but it is horrible, tragic and heartbreaking. We are currently governed by the “law of mortality,” which simply states that no matter who you are or where you live the chances of you dying double every eight years (Gavrilov, 1992). This doubling of our mortality rate is the result of the accumulation of damage generated by the process of sustaining our life (our metabolism). During youth, the damage is limited and does not affect our health and well-being, but as we age the damage begins to accumulate and our likelihood of dying from a certain disease of aging increases exponentially. We certainly know how to decrease our mortality. mortality rate by using vaccines and antibiotics and avoiding harmful behaviors, but unfortunately we have nothing that can reduce our mortality rate. This may help to explain the fact that, although the total number of centenarians (those living beyond 100 years) is increasing (Office for National Statistics, 2013), the number of super-centenarians (those living beyond 110 years ) remained constant. diseases and disabilities, increases human suffering and increases the likelihood of death, but many oppose the search for a cure for this disease. Some believe that aging is natural and that treating it would lead not only to overpopulation, but also to lower life satisfaction and an unexpected... middle of paper... in order to relieve and cure those who suffer and in pain. Because aging has been considered inevitable for so many millennia, people have ignored it for the problem that it is. Aging, like polio, is a disease responsible for the deaths of 100,000 people every day and in the developed world it is responsible for 90% of all deaths ("Aging: Humanity's Biggest Problem"). Understanding and recognizing that aging is a treatable disease allows us to see it as a problem we can solve. From a utilitarian point of view, finding a cure for aging should be a top priority because it is the leading cause of death and causes many diseases. global social and economic problems. Curing aging would minimize the pain of death and alleviate many of the social and economic problems encountered in the world. Therefore, finding a cure for aging would help maximize overall happiness.