FLICKR, JDIs aging a disease? Mutaz Musa answers this question in the affirmative in “Opinion: Aging, Just Another Disease.” In response to his article, we suggest that, aside from containing fundamental logical flaws, Musa’s argument produces a simplistic picture of the complexities of aging, both as a concept and as an actual phenomenon. While the author’s opinion appears to be driven by a sincere desire to optimize people’s lives, his approach might in fact be counterproductive: by pathologizing aging, he creates more, not less, challenges to ascribe meaning to age-related physical decline.
The questions raised in Musa’s piece are nonetheless thought-provoking, as he confronts assumptions about what constitutes disease and what causes aging. In particular, Musa asks us—researchers who study the various processes of aging—to consider how we define aging, disease, and the causes and effects that link these phenomena.
There are logical flaws in Musa’s opening statements. “No longer considered an inevitability, growing older should be and is being treated like a chronic condition,” he writes. This proclamation contains argumentative entanglements that are common in the field of aging research, and which should be considered carefully. Musa’s first claim, that “growing older is no longer considered an inevitability,” only makes sense if you consider “growing older” not as a descriptive term for the latter stages of ...
