Life Expectancy Ethos

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The age of life expectancy for an average healthy human being has been about 70 years old for the past few decades. But as society and medicine advance simultaneously, the number is expected to increase as new ideas of what people can accomplish in their elder years of life continue to be challenged. The authors aim to interpret exactly why this particular age is considered when someone dies as a time when that person has lived a “full life,” compared to when someone at a younger age dies. Both authors intend to attract an audience of health professionals, elderly people, medical researchers and institutes, and individuals who have survived beyond the age of 70. The quote, “As life expectancies continue to change, so too will our collective ideas about death and its timing—not just for geniuses who write generation-defining anthems, but also the rest of us who still have unfinished business of our own,” …show more content…

“There are two types of death: the kind that comes too soon, and the kind that, though lamentable, at least feels age-appropriate.” And “When the very old die, however, the loss—while still terrible for their loved ones—doesn’t come with that same sense of unfulfilled potential.” These appeal to ethos in that they bring in the moral issue of how people for years have interpreted the effect of an unexpected death based on the age of that deceased person. Should society be able to say whether someone has lived his or her life to the