Felix Werth

Chairman of the German Party for Biomedical Rejuvenation Research

We are doing a fundraising campaign for hanging up 1000 election posters for the state election in Bremen.

With the posters we would get more public attention for our issue of rejuvenation research.

According to the law, we are not allowed to receive more than 1000 Euro per year per donor from donors, who live outside of Germany and who do not have the citizenship of a country of the European Union. That means that there is no donation-limit for all people, who live in Germany or have the citizenship of a country of the European Union. Also we are allowed to receive an unlimited number of anonymous donations of a maximum of 500 Euro each.

[Here is the election program in German](https://verjuengungsforschung.de/wahlprogramm-bremen-2023)

And here is the election program of the last state election in Berlin in English, which is basically the same:

Election program for the Berlin state election on February 12th 2023

The Party for Health Research was renamed the Party for Biomedical Rejuvenation Research on Nov. 27, 2022. In the 2023 Berlin House of Representatives election, however, the party will still run under the old name Party for Health Research, as this is prescribed in the state election law for a repeat election.

The Party for Health Research is committed to the faster development of medicine with which people, through rejuvenation, are unlikely to die of old-age related diseases or old age itself and can live thousands of years, physically and mentally healthy. To this end, an additional 10 percent of Berlin’s state budget is to be invested in this area, in the construction and operation of additional research facilities and in the training of more people in the relevant fields, which includes the expansion of the relevant departments at universities such as biochemistry, molecular biology, and medicine.

The Party for Health Research wants to leave all other political issues to the other parties. These can be dealt with by the coalition partners in case of participation in a government coalition.

Explanation:

Aging causes suffering and death

Currently, more than 100,000 people die every day from diseases of old age such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and cardiovascular disease. The main risk factor for diseases of aging is advanced biological age.

Curing aging with the repair approach and enabling indefinitely long healthy life

In recent years, a new approach has become established in aging research, the so-called Damage Repair Approach. In the course of aging, harmful changes occur in the body as a result of normal metabolism, among other things, which, above a certain level, lead to diseases of old age. By repairing this damage at the molecular and cellular level, it is very likely that in the future it will be possible to biologically rejuvenate people and thus prevent all diseases of old age. After rejuvenation, people will continue to age because the damage would continue to occur. However, if rejuvenation medicine, which scientists will improve over time, is then applied repeatedly at regular intervals, people could live virtually indefinitely. In the process, they would have the appearance and physical and mental health and fitness of a young adult. Aging would thus be curable, so to speak.

The repair approach is relatively simple to implement

Reversing aging through the repair approach is much easier to implement than, for example, slowing aging by intervening in the metabolism. This is because metabolism is very complex and also not yet well understood. Trying to alter metabolism to cause less damage would likely do more harm than good because metabolism is so intertwined and complicated. In contrast, to implement the repair approach, one does not need to understand metabolism, but only to know the damage and how to repair it. All damages can be divided into a manageable number of categories. Such categories include protein linkages, mitochondrial mutations, and waste products inside and outside cells. It can be assumed that all types of damage are already known and that it is also known how to repair them in principle.

With appropriate funding, implementation is possible in about 10 to 20 years

We don’t need any breakthrough ideas or discoveries anymore, we just need to implement the repair approach. This is a lot of work, however, because there are thousands of different types of damage, and for each type of damage, a different medicine must be developed to repair it. At present, very few scientists worldwide are working on the implementation of the repair approach, i.e. the medicine for only a small part of the damage is under development. However, if thousands of research groups would start working on the implementation of the repair approach and each research group were to develop medicine for different damage in parallel, then we would probably have medicine for thousands of different damages in about 10 to 20 years and could thus rejuvenate people to such an extent that they would no longer have to die from aging.

The repair approach is already established

The scientific publication „The Hallmarks of Aging,“ which describes the repair approach, is the most cited scientific publication in the field of aging research in the last decade. Numerous startups, research institutes, and university research groups are already working on implementing the repair approach, but unfortunately not nearly enough.

More and more well-known, prestigious and influential individuals and organizations are also investing billions in aging research. For example, Google founded the company Calico, which aims to cure aging. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is investing in the company Altos Labs, which also addresses aging. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife want their organization CZI to help cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the century, and German web.de founder Michael Greve is investing several hundred million euros with his company Kizoo to implement the repair approach.

Concerns and objections regarding the abolition of age-related death bear no relation to the suffering caused by aging today

If people stay young and healthy forever through rejuvenation medicine and no longer die from aging, they will theoretically live indefinitely, or until they succumb to another cause of death, such as an accident.

Of course, new problems may arise as a result of this revolution. However, every invention and exploration of new approaches carries opportunities as well as risks. We believe that societal risks should not stop us from developing rejuvenation medicine that can solve the humanitarian problem of aging. Instead, we should be open to the challenge of solving future societal problems that might accompany rejuvenation medicine and engage in more discussion about them with each other.

Indeed, good solutions already exist for virtually all of the problems cited in connection with strong life extension. For example, the objection to overpopulation can be answered by saying that new technologies such as renewable energies and meat from the laboratory will enable the earth to cope with many more people in the future. And experience from industrialized countries shows that the birth rate falls as wealth and education levels rise.

Since we already know how to develop rejuvenation medicine through the repair approach and scientists are already working on it, the question is no longer whether we can or should develop this medicine, but how fast this development can proceed and when we want to reap the benefits of this development. So it would not be a solution to any problems if we did not accelerate the development of rejuvenation medicine.

Another point is that these eventual problems are disproportionate to the current problem of more than 100,000 deaths per day from aging. They are nowhere near as large and could very likely be solved, so they cannot be an argument for not accelerating the development of effective anti-aging medicine. Or to put it another way: In an ageless world, we would not solve these problems by inventing and introducing aging and all its associated diseases either.

The fact that some people defend age-related death so vehemently can be explained as follows: In the past, nothing could be done about biological aging. At the same time, age-related death is so frightening and the thought of it so stressful that people repress it or gloss over it to protect their psyche. This was a reasonable coping strategy as long as we were powerless in the face of aging. Now, however, when we have a good chance to abolish age-related death in the near future through the repair approach, this psychological self-protection has become a major problem because it stands in the way of faster implementation of the repair approach.

High urgency from an ethical and economic point of view

Our Basic Law states as a fundamental right that everyone has the right to life. You do not lose this right when you are old.

How much is now invested in implementing the repair approach in the coming years could be decisive for each individual as to whether they belong to the last generation to die from aging or they belong to the first generation to live indefinitely in the best of health.

Now that we know that we can very likely cure aging in the foreseeable future, it is unacceptable that not much more government investment is going into this area. From an ethical point of view, this is urgently needed.

From an economic point of view, too, the more rapid development of rejuvenation medicine would be very beneficial. A great deal of money would be saved by eliminating the costs of illness and care. In addition, rejuvenation medicine will be one of the largest economic sectors of the future, as everyone is affected by aging. Investing more in this area now could export knowledge and medicine in the future.

That is why we are calling for much more government investment

That is why the Party for Health Research calls for a significant additional portion of the state budget to be invested in implementing the repair approach.

Positive effects on other areas as well

An indefinitely long healthy life for all can also help solve many other major problems of today. For example, it is often said that the older generation does not care about the environment and climate because they are unlikely to experience the consequences themselves. If this were true, with unlimited life expectancy, many more people would be concerned about climate protection and do their part to help overcome the climate crisis.

Aging causes a great deal of suffering worldwide. If we act together globally against this, this can unite mankind.

Let’s take the chance now! Vote for us!

Many people avoid the topic or do not yet know about our chance. Hardly anyone actively calls for more research in this area – for example, there are no large demonstrations for it. The development of medicine against aging is still not an issue in public discussion. Since our party exclusively represents this one issue, everyone can show the other parties how important this issue is by voting for us in the House of Representatives election. The better we do in the election, the more likely the other parties will recognize the relevance of our issue and address it more. A vote for the Party for Health Research is therefore not a wasted vote, even if we do not reach the 5 percent hurdle in this election.

Let’s seize the opportunity now to eradicate the suffering caused by aging.

With your vote, we can reach that goal faster.


1000 election posters for the Party for Biomedical Rejuvenation Reasearch for the state election in Bremen

The Party for Biomedical Rejuvenation Research is a single-issue party. With future medicine, through rejuvenation, people are likely to stop dying of old age diseases or old age and live healthily for thousands of years. The Party for Biomedical Rejuvenation Research wants to greatly accelerate the development of this medicine and thus save the lives of many millions of people. To achieve this, much more state money is to be invested in the construction and operation of additional research facilities and in the training of more people in the relevant fields, which includes the expansion of the relevant departments at universities such as biochemistry, molecular biology and medicine.  

The Party for Biomedical Rejuvenation Research wants to leave all other political issues to the other parties. These can be dealt with by the coalition partners in case of participation in a government coalition.

[Continue reading.](https://verjuengungsforschung.de/about_us)