How death has changed over the last 110 years

[andrewducker]

via

Comments

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

The two obvious changes are the emergence of suicides (no longer illegal, and the religious angle no longer has the edge it used to) and the growth in cancer (natural consequence of increased longevity).

[autopope.livejournal.com]

No, the obvious change is the discovery of antibiotics.

Most of the pathogen-caused deaths go away. People live longer. What's left is diseases of age -- cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's.

If we don't get new antibiotics soon, the graph in 50-100 years time will resemble the graph from 1900: lots of elderly folks dying of antibiotic-resistance bacterial infections, XDR-TB ripping its way through the poor, and so on.

However, I find the 50% decline in accidental deaths heartening.