Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn1
The enlightened but doleful predictions of the Reverend Thomas Malthus in 17982 have now truly come to pass. By 2050, Australia will be awash with centenarians, many requiring implants, artificial organs and even cerebral exchanges. No longer the dreary sere and yellow leaf, no longer Shakespeare’s dreaded seventh age “sans teeth, sans eyes … sans everything”,3 only a fortunately placed populace intent on deferring the inevitable.
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- 1. Binyon RL. For the fallen. The Times (London) 1914; 21 Sep. http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/laurence-binyon-for-the-fallen.htm (accessed Sep 2015).
- 2. Malthus TR. An essay on the principle of population. Or a view of its past and present effects on human happiness; with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions. 6th ed. London: John Murray, 1826.
- 3. Shakespeare W. As you like it, Act II, Scene VII. Project Gutenberg ebook, 1997. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1121/pg1121-images.html (accessed Sep 2015).
- 4. Thomas D. Do not go gentle into that good night. Collected poems, 1934–1952. Project Gutenberg ebook, 2004. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks04/0400381.txt (accessed Sep 2015).
- 5. Browning R. Rabbi Ben Ezra. In: Baker FT, editor. Browning’s shorter poems. Project Gutenberg ebook, 2005. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16376/16376-h/16376-h.htm#page143 (accessed Sep 2015).
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