  Mortality is an instrument of natural selection. Evolutionary motivated
theories imply its irreversibility and life history dependence. This is
inconsistent with mortality data for protected populations. Accurate analysis
yields mortality law, which is specific for their evolutionary unprecedented
conditions, yet universal for species as evolutionary remote as humans and
flies. The law is exact, instantaneous, reversible, stepwise, and allows for a
rapid (within less than two years for humans) and significant mortality
decrease at any (but very old) age.
