Aging of The Whole Organism
Organismal senescence is the aging of whole organisms. In general, aging is characterized by the declining ability to respond to stress, increased homeostatic imbalance, and increased risk of aging-associated diseases. Death is the ultimate consequence of aging, though "old age" is not a scientifically recognized cause of death because there is always a specific proximal cause, such as cancer, heart disease, or liver failure. Aging of whole organisms is therefore a complex process that can be defined as "a progressive deterioration of physiological function, an intrinsic age-related process of loss of viability and increase in vulnerability".
Differences in maximum life span among species correspond to different "rates of aging". For example, inherited differences in the rate of aging make a mouse elderly at 3 years and a human elderly at 80 years. These genetic differences affect a variety of physiological processes, including the efficiency of DNA repair, antioxidant enzymes, and rates of free radical production.
Senescence of the organism gives rise to the Gompertz–Makeham law of mortality, which says that mortality rate accelerates rapidly with age.
Some animals, such as some reptiles and fish, age slowly (negligible senescence) and exhibit very long lifespans. Some even exhibit "negative senescence", in which mortality falls with age, in disagreement with the Gompertz–Makeham "law".
Whether replicative senescence (Hayflick limit) plays a causative role in organismal aging is at present an active area of investigation.
Read more about this topic: Senescence
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“fundamentally an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism—something it is like for the organism.”
—Thomas Nagel (b. 1938)