Conversation | 06/27/2008 12:00 am
The New Catch-22 for Women

Retirement: Will the money run out before we die, now that we live longer? Who will take care of us? Who will take care of anyone? Who do you have to take care of? And what do we think about money and retirement? These were some of the questions posed to the wOw women. Read on for the resulting conversation.
LIZ: The only way to retire is to have money; or to get old, or to get sick. I don’t think anybody can retire without money anymore, and it’s going to be proven now, in spades, with all of these people
retiring.
JANE: And I’m working on some information about going to Germany for stem cells for all of us. So when that happens, we’ll live close to forever. Stem cells are already being … being put into cosmetics and all kinds of things now. And we’ll be using them on the surface of our skin, and also taking injections.
LIZ: You’re quite right. They’re using them in all kinds of operations now, even though they haven’t been approved.
JANE: No, I know it. So I really think … that there is something out there that will make us live longer and we’ve got to get into it right now, and then worry about the money later. But if the stem cells really work, maybe we’ll be rejuvenated to the point where we’ll be able to work.
| If I'm lucky, I'll probably go bankrupt one of these days. So I hope I do. I hope I live long enough to not have any more money. |
LIZ: The stem cell argument, an ethical argument, is still going on in lawmaking and in the United States and so forth. And yet people are already going around the world to have stem-cell operations. I have a friend who has cancer of the bladder and he’s given up on the usual
treatment and he’s gone to have stem cell … some kind of stem cell thing, at a place that he won’t tell where he went.
JANE: I’ve already had neuropeptides injections, which is the closest thing to stem cells, for the brain. And I can’t tell any difference, but hopefully it’s done something.
LIZ: Oh, I think you’re a lot smarter now than you used to be.
MARY: Did you do that in the United States?
JANE: No. The doctor was from Germany and came to a holistic doctor’s office here.
MARY: Well Germany does a lot of that, yes.
JANE: It was almost like a placebo effect, because I felt better doing something, you know? And I know he’s very respected in, I think it’s Frankfurt or Hamburg. And this is a place where, I think I’ve talked about it with you, Mary. Siegfried and Roy went for treatment after Roy’s accident.
MARY: Right.
JANE: … and we’re going to find out about it. There is someone here who can help us find out more about the treatments.
LIZ: And there’s that book … The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil.
JANE: He co-wrote a book about vitamins with a doctor. He takes over 200 vitamins a day.
MARY: We’re taking all his vitamins. You can get them on the Internet.
JANE: I know. I may switch to his regimen from Life Extension … well his book, I think it’s called Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever.
MARY: The late Dr. Helen Singer Kaplan said, "Some day, not too long from now, a group such as us will be sitting around and we’ll be saying, ‘Oh, think about 1990. People actually died back then.’"
LIZ: Oh, my God.























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