this post was submitted on 20 May 2024
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No, because that's literally agism.
I understand that it's tempting to think that old age necessarily means degraded mental faculties, but there is no scientific link between the two. There are people who develop Alzheimer's in their 30s, and others who remain lucid into their 100s. Tomorrow there could be a scientific breakthrough that doubles the average lifespan of every human on earth, and we'd be sitting here with an irrelevant age limit on the books like simpletons. The abilities of the person are what matters, the number itself is a red herring (in the same way that the color of their skin should not be used to infer anything).
If the issue is term length, then put a term limit on the position. Otherwise, democracy means the people will elect the wrong people sometimes. We're in a unique situation where the baby boomer generation has more voting power than the rest of the population, but this issue will resolve itself.
Edit: the AARP's position on the matter
Genetic max age in humans is 120 years (+-5 years).
Based on telomere degradation. Recent developments may result in human telomere repair in the near future.
Which still leaves genetic degradation and a few more to solve. Aside from living standards, since most don't reach even 100. But maybe those cases who reach 120 without doing anything special are similiar cases to the super-healers of lung tissue, which never get cancer even with 2 packs cigare / day?