Science and human life

The elderly of most of the developing countries are not getting the attention that they deserve. The event of unprecedented increase in life expectancy has given rise to an emerging possibility of identifying the process of ageing when it is examined through the two dimensional biomedical approach to deal with the problems of the process.

The technological revolution has captured our imagination. Its impact on all walks of life has been discussed and felt for many years but the far-reaching effects of the demographic revolution have been relatively ignored. It is called a 'silent revolution' though the individuals, families, neighbours and nations throughout the world have felt its effects.

For the first time the biologists and the physicians started to study the ageing pattern making the biomedical paradigm to be an effective basis of gerontology and geriatrics. Though it is in the next stages in the study of gerontology, the personnel working in the fields of psychology, sociology, economics, demography and anthropology became serious in the examination of ageing processe, of course, the biomedical paradigm continued to remain the forerunner in understanding the complications of ageing trends. Subsequently, the environmentalists and nutritionists became involved with the problems of the elderly. A related issue that is likely to shape the approach to promote services to the elderly is that of ethics and human rights. There is the rapid proliferation of new biomedical information and information technology. Ethics today has been a subject of lively public interest to reflect a strong desire to assert some measures of control over the all-pervasive effects of information technology. The public want democratic control over their own lives as well as societies. For example, genetics offers the hope of therapies for previously incurable diseases but it also holds the risk of eugenics. While screening is a leading tool for prevention and cure, it may also lead to discrimination and breach of confidentiality. The researchers working in the field of religious gerontology plead that a segmented approach to the ageing process can only result on a reductionistic, one-dimensional caricature of the elderly. They emphasise that there is an imperative need for the inclusion of the spiritual dimension in the study of ageing.

Since time immemorial, the quest for possessing longer life has been pursued all over the world the developed and the developing, the urban and the rural, the rich and the poor. The ageing process starts at the time of conception and it is a lifelong course.