Thursday, 16 February 2012

6.00-7.30pm

 The extended lifespan. Is it in our best interests?

Venue:  Darwin Lecture Theatre

Convenor/chair: Nick Tyler Chadwick Professor of Civil Engineering, Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering, Director, UCL Crucible

 Speakers:
Mel Bartley,Professor of Medical Sociology,UCLEpidemiology and Public Health. Director, ESRC Centre for Life Course Studies in Society and Health

 Malcolm Grant, Provost, UCL.Chair, NHS Commissioning Board
Sally Greengross,Chief Executive, International Longevity Centre-UK. Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Groups: Dementia, Corporate Social Responsibility, Intergenerational Futures and Continence Care.

 Additional speakers will be announced shortly.

 ~ This discussion forms part of UCL Wellbeing Week 2012 convened by UCL Crucible and the UCL Grand Challenge of Human Wellbeing

 This panel discussion is a public event aimed at a wide audience. Panel members will be asked to speak for a maximum of 10 minutes about their views on the issues raised by the title of this event, drawing from their experience as high-level overseers of research.

 The discussion will draw out the various impacts of an extended lifespan. It is noted that the life span of someone born in 2011 could easily be 100 years in some societies, yet below 40 years in others.  As our life expectancy grows, how will we cope with continual degradation of our dexterity, eyesight or mental capacity? Is such degradation inevitability? How reduced can our functional performance become before we have to contend with life-changing impacts? How will our health system cope? How will an ageing population erode tax revenues and how will future generations be affected? As we live longer, will we live with disease and disability for longer?

 Ageing is not only about the extending of lifespan at the ‘older end’. The increased ageing of relatively small groups, such as people with Downs syndrome and cerebral palsy, who in the past had relatively short lifespans, but are now living longer – possibly beyond the lifespan of their parent-carers.  How should these groups, who are often not included in the ‘ageing debate’, be integrated into wider society?

7.30-8.30pm, Reception, Wilkins South Cloisters