Ethics-Governance: Article: eMJA: Sutherland, Just how long can we live?

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eMJA: Sutherland, Just how long can we live? Cracking the Code. Just how long can we live? Grant R Sutherland In June this year, United States President Clinton and British Prime Minister Blair jointly announced that the human genome had been sequenced. In another year or so, this information should be assembled into a much more useful form than that in which it now exists. The advances which will be made possible by the Human Genome Project and new genetic technologies may well extend the human life span still further. MJA 2000; 173: 594-596 Genetic susceptibility to common diseases - Cancer - Infectious disease - Aging genes - A longer life? The Human Genome Project will not be completed, in my view, until the functions of all human genes have been determined, knowledge of genetic variation between individuals is documented, and interaction between genes and between each gene and the environment and the contributions of these factors to human development and disease are established. This may take much of the coming century; however, substantial amounts of information of major importance to health and wellbeing have begun to emerge. In Australia, life expectancy rose by a little more than 20 years for males and 22 years for females in the 20th century (Box 1). Similar rises were recorded in most countries in which Western medicine was fairly readily accessible. This increase was achieved without input from the Human Genome Project, and involved factors that improved the environment (eg, sanitation, seat belts), as well as medical factors such as vaccines and antibiotics. How can the outcomes of the Human Genome Project be expected to eventually affect life expectancy? Genetic susceptibility to common diseases There are more than 100 relatively common diseases for which there are susceptibility genes present in the population (Box 2). Full Article: http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/173_11_041200/sutherland/sutherland.html


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