Ethics of antiaging intervention

The ethics of antiaging intervention can be defined as a set of moral desirability criteria, normative recommendations, principles and rules, for research, development and application of medical treatments aimed to ameliorate degenerative aging processes and extend healthy longevity. This article considers the ethics of the goal-setting of therapeutic intervention into the aging process, including an historical perspective; the ethics of research and development of antiaging therapies, with a special focus on research and development of evidence-based criteria for the efficacy and safety of such therapies; and the ethical issues of therapeutic applications of potential antiaging treatments, with reference to choosing target patient populations. Further the article examines the ethics of distribution of therapies, with considerations of equality and equity; and social and individual implications of antiaging therapies, concerning questions of identity, meaning and resource allocation. The ethics of antiaging therapies’ research, development and application must yet be broadly discussed and elaborated by academics and policy-makers, as well as the general public, to improve health policy and research policy for the rapidly aging populations.