Question: What would you put as a higher priority a way of prolonging life or a cure for cancer and why?

  1. A cure for cancer, any cancer, there are so many now. The main reason is that I believe quality of life is more important than quantity of life. What would be the point of living to 200 if you were too feeble to go anywhere or where in pain all the time because you had a tumor pressing on your spine.

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  2. I agree with Dirk, it would definitely be a cure for cancer. Our cells really are programmed to die after certain periods, and whilst many of them are rapidly replaced, the DNA in our chromosomes gets damaged throughout our lifetime. Ageing is a form of programmed cell death and so to prolong life once we are old, requires us to interefere with a natural process. Cancer on the other hand is a disease that affects people of all ages, it too is often programmed by changes in our DNA, but it representse abnormal cell growth and cells that do not die when they should. I think understanding the genetics behind cancer would go a long way to enabling us to treat many diseases. What would we do if we could live forever? You would could not afford to retire at 65, you would need to work until you were 100!!

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  3. I think those two things are not mutually exclusive. Medicine and science have advanced so far in the last century or so, that people do not die from the wide range of diseases and illnesses that they did in the past. After heart disease and old age, cancer is the next biggest cause of deaths in Australia. So curing all the different types would in turn lead to people generally having longer lifespans. Overall I think it’s important to spread research funds and efforts over several different areas and not just concentrate on one thing. so we can increase our knowledge about everything in our world.

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  4. I’ll go with @Dirk’s answer: Quality over quantity. Good life rather than a long life. The cancer treatments we have right now really make people miserable, so finding a cure for cancer would be good.

    🙂

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  5. I’m with the other scientists, I would prefer a cure for cancer. Cancer can affect all different people no matter what their age,and I would prefer to see kids with cancer be cured and grow up and get to have a life, than just have those that don’t have disease get to live longer. I also agree with what Renee said, if you can find a cure for cancer, it probably will mean people will end up living longer.
    However researching what makes us age is important as many diseases (including cancer) increase as we age, and understanding this natural process will allow us to know more about what we call ‘life’!

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