LAW AND THE HUNDRED-YEAR LIFE

Abstract

I want to begin with a fact. A fact that stunned me when I heard it, and a fact that motivates this lecture. Here it is: "the majority of children born in rich countries today can expect to live to more than 100." Put another way, more than 50% of babies born in the United States today will be alive one hundred years from now. This isn't a fringe statistic. It's not from the National Enquirer. It's a statistical projection from social scientists at Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute. Of course, it is just a projection, and nature and man might intervene in any number of unpleasant ways to upend that projection. But for purposes of this lecture, let's live in the happier world of social science predictions and take the statistic at face value. What kinds of challenges will society confront when human beings routinely live to one hundred and beyond? And, how can law shape better, rather than worse, outcomes to these challenges?