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President’s Council on Bioethics Invites UI Scientist Steven Austad to Discuss Aging-related Issues, Studies
Oct. 29, 2002
MOSCOW – University of Idaho scientist Steven Austad will discuss his research on aging and current issues in the field during an invited presentation to the President’s Council on Bioethics.
Council Chairman Leon Kass, a prominent University of Chicago bioethicist and American Enterprise Institute fellow, invited Austad to meet with the council Dec. 12 in Washington, D.C. President George W. Bush formed the council in January.
Austad will be paired with S. Jay Olshansky, a University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health researcher. The two scientists disagree about the limits of the human life span and the implications of efforts to extend life. The pair have a friendly wager, for $500 million, about how long humans can live and still enjoy good health.
Austad believes someone already born will provide the proof of the wager by remaining healthy until 150 years old. Olshansky believes that humans are biologically incapable of remaining in good health past 130 years of age. Their debate about aging led to the wager, which is payable in 2150.
The bet is a lighter-hearted take on the debate that exists in the research community focused on aging. The estimated proceeds of a trust fund they created in 2001 will pay the winner’s heirs.
The president formed the council after debate about stem cell research dominated headlines for months last year. The council’s charter reaches far beyond that issue, however, its chairman said in his opening remarks.
“Some efforts to prolong life may come at the price of its degradation, the unintended consequences of success at life-saving interventions,” Kass said in convening the council Jan. 17. “Other efforts to save lives might call for dubious or immoral means, while the battle against death itself—as if it were just one more disease—could undermine the belief that it matters less how long one lives than how well.”
For his part, Austad said the invitation intrigues him. “It is really forcing me to think about the biological ethics of the issues. I had a long talk with the chairman, and he struck me as an extremely thoughtful individual,” he said.
The chairman already was familiar with Austad’s book, “Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering About the Body's Journey Through Life,” originally published by John Wiley & Sons in 1997.
This fall, Austad is teaching an honors integrated science core class for UI freshman, “From Aging Cells to an Aging Society: The Shape of the Future.”
In 1999, Austad received an $836,000 four-year senior scholar award from the Ellison Medical Foundation senior scholar award to fund his studies on aging in birds. Parakeets, his research focus, are adept at combating the effects of aging at the cellular level.
Contacts: Steven Austad, professor of zoology, (208) 885-6598, austad@uidaho.edu ; or Bill Loftus, science writer, (208) 885-7694, bloftus@uidaho.edu
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