My father was hypertensive early on, and died of cancer in his early seventies. My Mom had a number of skin cancers during her lifetime, and died of recurrent lung cancer in her early eighties. She had two sisters, both of whom died of breast cancer, one in her early sixties. Each of these aunts had a child who died from cancer at an early age
(their forties). And I had a sister who was never what you would call healthy, who died of medical complications in her mid-forties.
On the other hand:
My wife's Mom died in her mid-sixties from cancer. She had one sister who lived into her nineties, and died from old age. Nancy's Dad (whom she clearly resembles physically) recently passed away at age 95. His cause of death was Simple Old Age.
Up to 4 or 5 months before he died, he lived in his own apartment, drove his car every day, played golf, and was the hit of every party he attended.
He had a slew of aunts and uncles who were way into the eighties or nineties before they died, and most of them died from old age as he had, not from some horrid disease.
Which family's gene pool would you rather have? Wouldn't you agree, all things equal, that my wife's chances of living longer are better than mine?
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