Prolonging HumanLife

Prolonging humanlife has increased the size of the human population.Many people alive todaywould have died of childhood diseases if they had been born 100 years

ago.Because morepeople live longer,there are more people around at any given time.In fact,it isa decrease in death rates,not an increase in birthrates,that has led to the

populationexplosion.

2.Prolonging humanlife has also increased the dependency load.In all societies,people who aredisabled or too young or too old to work are dependent on the rest of society

to provide for them.In hunting and gathering cultures,old people who could not keep up might beleft behind to die.In times of famine,infants might be allowed to die because

they could notsurvive if their parents starved,whereas if the parents survived they couldhave another child.

3.In mostcontemporary societies,people feel a moral obligation to keep people alive whetherthey can work or not. We have a great many people today who live past the age

at which they wantto work or are able to work.We also have rules which require people to retireat a certain age.Unless these people were able to save money for their

retirement,somebodyelse must support them.In the United States many retired people live on socialsecurity checks which are so little that they must live in near poverty.

Older people havemore illness than young or middle-aged people.Unless they have wealth orprivate or government insurance,they must often"go on welfare"if theyhave a

serious illness.

4.When older peoplebecome senile or too weak and ill to care for themselves,they create graveproblems for their families.In the past and in some traditional cultures,they

would be cared forat home until they died.Today,with most members of a household working or inschool,there is often no one at home who can care for a sick or weak

person.To meet thisneed,a great many nursing homes and convalescent hospitals have been built.These are often profit-making organizations, although some are sponsored

by religious andother nonprofit groups.While a few of these institutions are good,most of themare simply"dumping grounds"for the dying in which"care"isgiven by poorly

paid,overworked,andunder-skilled personnel.In________,oldpeople who could not keep up might be abandoned to die.

A.too weak and ill

B.hunting andgathering cultures

C.childhood diseases

D.no one at home

E.epidemic diseases