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by NegativeK 4410 days ago
Infant and child mortality is down _and_ we're living longer.
1 comments

> _and_ we're living longer.

This is mainly due to the improvement of hospital facilities and the end of life treatments. we are not living longer better - the older you get the more cripple you are likely to survive. What really matters in life expectancy is the ability to live longer in good health.

The improvement of hospital facilities owe a great deal to humanity's ability to destroy germs at will when it is important to do so, e.g. during/after surgery.

http://jfh.sagepub.com/content/14/3/195.abstract

Hospitals were death traps 200 years ago.