>The female body, OTOH, knows very well that its
>genetic message has been read and passed on......
>so from a strictly biological point of view, there
>seems to be no need for the human female to live
>on past the point that her last child is weaned.....

Or maybe , there is no needs biologically speaking for human females to
experience menopause.
Female chimpanzee as all other animals don't know that phenomenon , i have
been told! ( i never met wild chimpanzees yet)
they are reproductive to the end. I think the Guiness book have records on
older woman bearing child.
>We are programmed to die......we reach a peak of
>development, do our reproducing, and begin to
>die

Yes , and  there is no evidence that we need to fall apart to be ready to
die. ( my grand father was able to put his leg behind his head at age
81,something that i don't remember ever  beeing able to do and rode his
bicycle  to his garden til  age 85.BUt once his wife died and didn't have
any social role to play he just started to fall apart in a very short time.


jean-claude.