The Expectations We Place on Modern Medicine

Between 1900 and 2003, medical advances have brought the average life expectancy in the United States from forty-nine up to seventy-eight, a 57.5 percent increase. These advances have exhilarated medical professionals and laypeople.

Some medical interventions—such as penicillin, which turned life-threatening infections into minor, easily treated issues—are silver bullets, providing quick fixes to readily identifiable problems.

But now, after decades of witnessing miracle after medical miracle, we expect that medicine will continue along this exponential trajectory. Since we’ve…