I’m writing during a short break in the proceedings of the 2016 Eurosymposium on Healthy Ageing, which is being held in central Brussels.
The organisers have in mind that attendees could issue a declaration at the end of the event, tomorrow, Saturday 1st October – a date which happens to be Longevity Day.
Please find some draft text for this declaration. Lots of other text has been proposed too, but this is a fairly minimal version.
Before the text of the declaration is finalised, I’m interested to hear comments:
- What should be added – or omitted?
- What’s unclear?
- What do people particularly like about it?
- What improvements might be made to the language?
- What changes (if any) would convince you to add your signature to it?
- What’s a good way to conclude the declaration?
Please let us know!
Note: Many thanks are due to various members and supporters of Heales for suggesting text – especially Didier Coeurnelle.
(Update 6pm Brussels time 1st October – the draft text has evolved. The latest version is below.)
The Brussels Declaration for Radical Healthspan Extension
The defeat of aging lies within our collective grasp. It’s time to seize this remarkable opportunity.
This 1st of October 2016, during International Longevity Day, the Eurosymposium on Healthy Ageing (EHA) meeting in Brussels proclaims the possibility and the imperative of a moonshot project to overcome all age-related diseases within 25 years by tackling aging as their root cause.
The result will be a world:
- Where healthcare is far less expensive
- Where human well-being can be radically extended
- Where people place greater value on the environment and on peace, in view of their expectation of much longer lives
- Where the right to life is more precious than ever, because life is longer.
Key steps in this initiative will include:
- A paradigm shift stressing the need for research on aging itself, rather than only on individual diseases of old age
- The removal of regulatory and other barriers which prevent or disincentivize companies from developing treatments for aging itself
- An accelerated program to test anti-aging interventions on a much larger scale than anything that exists at the moment, leading to multiple human clinical trials of genuine rejuvenation biotechnologies by 2021.
These programs will require a coordinated effort at national and international level, integrating diverse existing and novel research approaches. They need to be financed by both public and private organizations, and create inclusive, affordable solutions available on equal terms to everybody.
dw2 
Leave a Reply