From an evolutionary perspective, y

From an evolutionary perspective, you are really important when you are young and not at all after you pass your reproductive years. This idea follows from the premise central to Darwin’s evolutionary theory. Natural selection gets rid of genes that reduce reproduction or survival throughout one’s repro- ductive span. In other words, individuals (in any species) who don’t pass on their genes by not reproducing can’t contribute to subsequent generations. It’s the genes from the successfully reproducing ones that persist. The individuals who survived to reproduce likely had genes that helped them do so. And these genes will influence all later generations. Natural selection ignores genes with bad effects that show up after the reproductive years. This concept has been expanded into two theories of aging: the mutation-accumulation theory and antagonistic pleiotropy.