Medicalization is the term given to the extension of the role of medicine to include what previously was considered as part of the normal events and experiences of our lives, by converting them into problems that require medical supervision and intervention (28). This process took off when antibiotics were shown capable of controlling infections, which had been the main cause of human mortality since time immemorial. If we humans could control our main killer, we concluded, it should then be easy to conquer all of the remaining threats to our lives. What we have witnessed since the 1930s is the launch of a series of medical wars, fueled by relentless efforts to find and use "magic bullets" (29), and to develop "smart bombs", and "missiles" targeting cancer first, then diabetes, heart disease, obesity, arthritis and dementia (30) and more recently, death itself (31).

As the merchants of immortality peddle their wares, creating and feeding from multiple fads (with the "omics" being the most recent), medicine is gaining even more power over all phases of our lives, from before birth until the very end (32). As Ivan Illich put it so presciently and poignantly, "Health, or the autonomous power to cope, has been expropriated down to the last breath." (33). Nowadays, almost every physical, mental or social challenge faced by humans could easily be considered as a condition to be corrected through medical means (34).

Now, a new force is emerging. In addition to the pursuit of immortality, medicalization seems to be emboldened increasingly by what has been called amortality, the belief in our ability to forestall ageing, and to avoid or ignore decrepitude and death (35). This new trend could provide a unique opportunity to create a new set of incentives for politicians, professionals, academics, philanthropists, communicators and clinicians to accept the attitudes, knowledge, skills and behaviors needed to drive society towards health (36), without colliding with the powerful medical-industrial complex (2).