2 The first and largest part of the project is published in my book, Aging, Death, and Human Longevity: A Philosophical Inquiry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).

3 Judith Jarvis, Thomson, “A Defense of Abortion,” in Moral Problems: A Collection of Philosophical Essays, ed. James, Rachels (New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 100, 102.Google Scholar

4 Gerald J., Gruman, A History of Ideas about the Prolongation of Life: The Evolution of Prolongevity Theses to 1800 (New York: Arno Press, 1977), 7.Google Scholar

5 I do this simply because I am myself a citizen of the West and therefore am personally familiar with Western culture. There may be significant cultural differences among life stages between Western and non-Western nations.

6 Louise, Gendron, “Vivre Jusqu'a 130 Ans,” L'Actualité (July 1999): 31.Google Scholar

7 David W. E., Smith, Human Longevity (New York: Oxford, 1993), 113.Google Scholar

8 Robert N., Anderson, “United States Life Tables, 1997,” National Vital Statistics Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 47 (December 13, 1999), 1.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., 3.

10 Statistics Canada, “'The Daily” (July29, 1997).Internetsitehttp:/ /www.statcan.ca/ Daily /English/970729 I d970729.htm#ART3. Date of extraction: April3, 1999.

11 Eric G., Moore and Mark W., Rosenberg, with Donald McGuinness, Grawing Old in Canada: Demographic and Geographic Perspectives (Scarborough, ON: FTP Nelson, 1997), 11.Google Scholar

12 Anderson, “United States Life Tables, 1997,” 3.

13 Smith, Human Longevity, 41.

14 Ken, Dychtwald and Joe, Flower, Age Wave: The Challenges and Opportunities of An Aging North America (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1989), 5.Google Scholar

15 Thomas T., Perls and Margery Hutter, Silver, Living to 100: Lessons in Living to Your Maximum Potential at Any Age (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 9.Google Scholar

16 Ironically, in the West, the initial period of social dependence and absence of or reduction in material and social responsibilities is being extended at the same time that some of the markers of maturity are arriving earlier - partly due to greater health and better nutrition, and partly due, it is feared, to exposure to exogenous hormones. Consider, for example, the fact that puberty in girls now occurs around age twelve or even eleven, rather than at fourteen, fifteen, or even sixteen as it did in the past.

17 The recent “World Youth Day” for Roman Catholics, held in Toronto in July, 2002, included “youth” ranging in age from early teens to late thirties.

18 Samantha Brennan suggested to me that the extension of adolescence may be class-based: middle-class children, supported by their parents and undergoing a prolonged education, may be allowed or even required to reach adulthood later than working-class youth, who must become independent sooner. I believe, however, that while some working-class young people may choose or be compelled to become adults sooner than middle-class young people (if, for example, they must become financially self-sufficient at a young age), others may find themselves in the situation of prolonged dependence, living with their parents because their job is only part-time or, even if full-time, it does not pay enough for full financial independence.

19 For example, according to Statistics Canada, the mean age at first marriage in Canada has been rising steadily since 1986 for both sexes. On average, first-time brides were 27.3 years old in 1996, compared with 24.8 a decade earlier. First-time grooms were 29.3 years old on average in 1996, up from 27.0 in 1986 (Statistics Canada, “The Daily” [October 1, 1999]. Internet site http:/ /www.statcan.ca/ Daily /English/991001/ d991001a.htm. Date of extraction: January 31, 2001).

20 Jacquelyn N., Zita, “Heresy in the Female Body: The Rhetorics of Menopause,” in The Other Within Us: Feminist Explorations of Women and Aging, ed. Marilyn, Pearsall (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), 95–96.Google Scholar

21 Jay F., Rosenberg, Thinking Clearly about Death (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall, 1983), 208.Google Scholar

22 Mark, Sagoff, “Genetic Engineering and the Concept of the Natural,” Philosophy and Public Affairs Quarterly 21 (2001): 5.Google Scholar

23 Marvin Cetron and Owen Davies, quoted in Jon Spayde, “Death Takes a Holiday,” Utne Reader Guly-August 1998): 20.

24 For example, in what ways does the standard age for retirement from productive labor- an age first defined in German in 1916, for no clear philosophical reasons (Social Security Online. Internet site http: I I www.ssa.gov /history I age65.html, the Official Website of the Social Security Administration [USA], date of extraction: July 31, 2002) -help to constitute how human beings see themselves as workers and as autonomous, capable productive beings?

25 Germaine, Greer, “Serenity and Power,” in The Other within Us: Feminist Explorations of Women and Aging, ed. Marilyn, Pearsall (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), 257-58.Google Scholar

26 A sense of certainty about the length of one's life also affects what one believes about oneself. For example, Carol M. Swain, now a professor of law and political science at Vanderbilt University, “dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and married at age 16 - in part, she says, because she saw no need to plan for a lengthy future. She was [at that time] a Jehovah's Witness, and accordingly believed that Armageddon would begin in 1975” (David, Glenn, “Can We Improve Race Relations by Giving Racists Some of What They Want?” The Chronicle of Higher Education 48 [2002], A12).Google Scholar

27 Karel, Čapek, “The Makropulos Secret,” trans. Yveta Synek, Graff and Robert T., Jones, in Toward the Radical Center: A Karel Čapek Reader, ed. Peter, Kussi (Highland Park, NJ: Catbird Press, 1990 [1922]), 169Google Scholar. As lives get longer, we must redefine, for purposes of health care and medical services, our understandings of “normal” and “natural.” If, for example, it were possible to enhance the memory capacities of aging people, then there might be a social responsibility to provide them with the means to do so, just as we now provide the means to enhance vision and hearing (Nancy S., Jecker, “Towards a Theory of Age-Group Justice,” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 14 [1989]: 672).Google Scholar

28 Samantha Brennan, e-mail communication, March 15, 1999.

29 Ageism is a phenomenon that disadvantages both the old and the very young, but it is probably worse to be an old woman than to be an old man.

30 Overall, Aging, Death, and Human Longevity. As I note there, although in most nations women live longer than men, in places such as India, women's life expectancy is lower than that of men because of severe forms of gender discrimination, including differential nutrition practices and femicide.

31 For example, John, Hardwig, Is There a Duty to Die? And Other Essays in Medical Ethics, with Nat, Hentoff, Dan, Callahan, Larry, Churchill, Felicia, Cohn, and Joanne, Lynn (New York: Routledge, 2000).Google Scholar

32 For example, Daniel, Callahan, False Hopes: Why America's Quest for Perfect Health is a Recipe for Failure (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998).Google Scholar

33 Ibid., 130, my emphasis.

34 Nora Kizer, Bell, “If Age Becomes a Standard for Rationing Health Care … ,” in Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, ed. Helen Bequaert, Holmes and Laura M., Purdy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 85; cf. 87.Google Scholar

35 James Lindemann, Nelson, “Death's Gender,” in Mother Time: Women, Aging, and Ethics, ed. Margaret Urban, Walker (Lanham, MD: Rowrnan & Littlefield, 1999), 117, 118, 124;Google Scholar emphasis in original removed.

36 Jeffner, Allen, “Motherhood: The Annihilation of Women,” in Women and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy, 2d ed., ed. Marilyn, Pearsall (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1993), 103.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., 105--06. Reproduction includes “biological children, material goods, and ideas of patriarchy.“

38 Margaret Morganroth, Gullette, “Menopause as Magic Marker: Discursive Consolidation in the United States and Strategies for Cultural Combat,” in Reinterpreting Menopause: Cultural and Philosophical Issues, ed. Paul, Komesaroff, Philipa, Rothfield, and Jeanne, Daly (New York: Routledge, 1997), 177.Google Scholar

39 Ibid., 181.

40 Pauline, Bart, “Portnoy's Mother's Complaints,” in The Other Within Us: Feminist Explorations of Women and Aging, ed. Marilyn, Pearsall (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997 [1970]), 28.Google Scholar

41 Allen, “Motherhood,” 106.

42 Some members of the audience at the 2002 Conference on Feminist Moral Philosophy where I read a draft of this paper suggested that in some respects the multiple ascribed stages of women's lives could also be an advantage, giving women more experiences with change and adaptation than may be encountered within stereotypical male lives.

43 See, for example, Jennifer A., Parks, “On the Use of IVF by Post-Menopausal Women,” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 14 (1999): 77–96.Google Scholar

44 These questions are obviously much too large to explore here. But arguments in favor of these reproductive interventions include appeals to reproductive freedom, giving women the same procreative opportunities that are already enjoyed “naturally” by men; the suggestion that increasing women's reproductive life could better suit women's increasing life expectancy; and the claim that women might be less disadvantaged by what Mary Carpenter calls “sexageism” (Mary Wilson, Carpenter, “Female Grotesques in Academia: Ageism, Antifeminism, and Feminists on the Faculty,” in Antifeminism in the Academy, ed. Vévé, Clark, Shirley Nelson, Garner, , Higonnet, and Ketu H., Katrak [New York: Routledge, 1996], 141-65)Google Scholar, if their reproductive lives lasted longer. On the other hand, arguments against such reproductive interventions include concerns about their effects on women's health and the potential reinforcement of the idea that old age in women is bad, that the purpose of women is sexual and reproductive, and that menopause is a horror.

45 James L., Goddard, “Extension of the Life Span: AN ational Goal?”, in Philosophical Foundations of Gerontology, ed. Patrick L., McKee (New York: Human Sciences Press, 1982), 152-53.Google Scholar