Mortality Essay Sample

The mortality rate in the U.S. goes along a straight and inevitable path of decrease. For the last more than 200 years it was constantly dropping. The life expectancy at birth has increased for 40 years – from 35 in the eighteenth century to 75 years nowadays. We owe such great achievements to the advances in medical science along with economic and everyday life improvements. It is very important to mention that most of the people even nowadays do not die their natural deaths; illnesses remain the reason that causes the most of the mortality. It is a bit shocking to hear that in our developed modern world almost no one dies because of old age; still it is true.
In different epochs, the most important historical milestones in the battle with death were also different. In 18th and 19th century, the most important causes of mortality rate decrease were the improvements in sanitation, public health, and economic life of the society. On this stage, the life expectancy at birth increased from 35 years in 1790 to 49.2 years in 1900. In the 20th century, the advancements were due to the development of medical science and our understanding of the factors causing illnesses. Due to these advancements, the life expectancy at birth has grown up to 75.2 years in 1989. Over the course of the century, we have defeated most of the sicknesses that cause death in children and adults. Tuberculosis has been seriously pushed back (from 11.3% deaths in 1900 to 0.0007% in 1989); the same fate awaited two other major causes of death – Pneumonia-influenza-bronchitis (from 14.4% to 3.5%) and diarrhea and enteritis. While the sicknesses were being fought, the child mortality significantly decreased (almost tenfold from 1915 to 1989). So, the battlefield for human lives moved to the older age and its diseases. In 1989, the three major causes of death in the the US were heart diseases, cancer, and cerebrovascular diseases.
All the advancements in life expectancy and mortality rate beg an important question: "Can life expectancy be extended indefinitely?" Well, now we do not have the exact answer, however, we already possess some relevant information related to the question to ponder on. First of all, from our former advancements we can conclude that each next disease defeated gives awards us with less life expectancy increase than the previous one. So, this process is essentially reducing concerning mortality rate decreases. And if it is reducing, then it bestows upon us some life expectancy limit. This limit is yet disputed, and most scientists suggest that it lies between 120 and 170 years. The recent advancements in cell biology show that in our cells there is a switch making the cell unable to divide after a certain number of divisions. If some way of disabling this switch is worked out, then life expectancy will probably experience a huge leap forward. Generally saying, life expectancy depends not only on the medical science alone, but on a series of other factors such as the way of life and nutrition. For example, today’s most widespread causes of death – cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases appear mostly due to the way of life and nutrition.
Many variables still remain unknown in the equation of our battle with death. The U.S. faced a dramatic life expectancy increase in the last 200 years, and it continues to grow, although at a decreasing rate. On our present level of knowledge, we possess distinct life length limits, however whether they are fundamental is a question awaiting its final answer.