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Hi Mary Ann I don't know what to think about the term "survival of the fittest". My first impression was like yours, that it had to do with strength, but then what about the survival of the swiftest or smartest or smallest or hundreds of other 'survival mechanisms"? Does it mean those who fit their particular environment the best survive the best? I certainly see your point that the older you are the closer you are to dying, but I also would add that Nature has plenty of ways to knock us off just because it can be so chaotic no matter our age. I forget the details but I remember reading that well over 90+% of the species that have ever existed on this planet are extinct. Earth quakes, climate change (including when the blue green algae poisoned the entire atmosphere with oxygen) and asteroid strikes can account for large numbers of random deaths. Add in deaths from warfare, accidents and getting eaten and it's a wonder any of us get a chance to reproduce much less draw Social Security. Just plain bad luck can put you on a continent like one of the Americas when the Europeans arrived with diseases for which you have no immunity no matter how fit you are. I'm not discounting Natural Selection or the idea that the older you are the more likely you will be sick but I don't think Nature acts to deliberately weed out the old in order to make room for offspring, indeed one theory is that having older members of a tribe around, especially grandmothers, leads to higher survival rates for the children because the grandmothers shared in the work of raising the kids. The more offspring you have that survive, the better chance you have of passing on some of your genes. Disease can have terrible impacts on whole populations and not be the result of anything more than bad luck. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn Joe